Xinis, an Obama appointee, set a fast-moving schedule last week that involved the Trump administration providing evidence and giving depositions about efforts it has taken to bring Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, back to the United States.

While Xinis said Tuesday that the Trump administration was making “bad faith” objections to these requests and improperly invoking numerous privilege claims to evade answering questions, her brief order Wednesday night pausing the process of gathering discovery until at least April 30 marked a sudden shift.

The DOJ has also been providing daily updates to the court on Abrego Garcia’s status in accordance with a separate order Xinis issued, and the judge said the government could temporarily stop doing that as well.

The government’s updates have consisted of various Homeland Security and State department officials telling the court in declarations that Abrego Garcia, who the Trump administration says is an MS-13 gang member, was detained in El Salvador’s megaprison CECOT, that the administration had no ability to dictate what the Salvadoran government did with him, and that President Nayib Bukele told reporters he does not want to release him.

A discrepancy in the updates cropped up when Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) met with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador. Photos from the senator’s visit showed Abrego Garcia appearing in plainclothes, rather than the white prison uniforms depicted in photos of the CECOT prisoners, and situated at a table by the water.

Van Hollen revealed after his visit that he learned from Abrego Garcia that the Salvadoran government had moved him from CECOT to a detention facility called “Centro Industrial” around April 10.

In response to that revelation and concerns expressed by Abrego Garcia’s family about his health, a State Department official told the court that it requested more information from the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador and learned he was indeed at a new facility and in good health.

“The Salvadoran government responded on April 21 that Mr. Abrego García is being held at the Centro Industrial penitentiary facility in Santa Ana, ‘in good conditions and in an excellent state of health,’” the State Department official said.

FEDERAL JUDGE SLAMS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S ‘BAD FAITH’ EFFORTS IN ABREGO GARCIA CASE

Abrego Garcia’s case has become a lightning rod in immigration policy as the Trump administration faces both criticism that it is rushing to deport illegal migrants without appropriate due process and praise for its aggressive crackdown on illegal border crossings.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys and the DHS have said in court papers that Abrego Garcia was granted a protective order that barred his removal to El Salvador and that he was deported last month to a prison in that country because of a paperwork error.

The immigration judge who granted Abrego Garcia the relief from deportation to El Salvador noted in his 2019 decision that the facts surrounding Abrego Garcia’s situation were not cut and dry and that the case was a “close call.” The Washington Examiner reached out to the DHS for more information on the removal order.