HOUSTON, United States

The Trump administration invoked the state secrets privilege Wednesday to avoid handing over documents in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador by the US government.

Department of Justice (DOJ) officials had previously indicated that they would take that route, but US District Judge Paula Xinis issued a new order indicating that the government formally invoked the privilege in a sealed filing, according to multiple news outlets.

"The Court requires formal briefing of the Defendants’ invocations of privilege, principally the state secrets and deliberative process privileges," Xinis wrote in her ruling.

The judge ordered both the Trump administration and Abrego Garcia’s lawyers to submit written briefs on the issue by Monday and said she will hold an in-person hearing in her Maryland courtroom on May 16.

The back-and-forth wrangling between both sides has been going on for nearly two months, since Abrego Garcia, 29, was detained during a DOJ migrant sweep on March 12 prompted by President Donald Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act that resulted in the deportations of nearly 150 alleged gang members to a Salvadoran supermax prison.

The administration accused Abrego Garcia of being an MS-13 Salvadoran gang member, with other migrants being detained for being alleged Tren de Aragua Venezuelan gang members, although the DOJ admits it made a clerical error in deporting Abrego Garcia, despite a previous court order from a different case that barred him from being expelled from the US.

The US Supreme Court ruled last month that the government must "facilitate" Abrego Garcia's return, but the Trump administration maintained that it had no jurisdiction to do that because he was now in the custody of a foreign country.

The judge also ordered DOJ officials to hand over any documents related to Abrego Garcia's deportation to begin working on efforts to return him to the US, but the judge’s latest order indicates the government is seeking to withhold those documents by deeming them state secrets.

It marks the second time the Trump administration has invoked the privilege in lawsuits challenging migrants who were deported to El Salvador in March.

The administration previously invoked the state secrets privilege in the case determining whether the government violated a now-lifted order to turn around deportation flights heading to El Salvador.