GREENBELT, Md. — A federal judge on Friday lambasted a government lawyer who couldn’t explain what, if anything, the Trump administration has done to arrange for the return of a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported last month to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

The U.S. government attorney also struggled to provide any information about the whereabouts of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, despite Thursday’s ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that the Trump administration must bring him back.

“Where is he and under whose authority?” U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis asked in a Maryland courtroom.

“I’m not asking for state secrets,” she said. “All I know is that he’s not here. The government was prohibited from sending him to El Salvador, and now I’m asking a very simple question: where is he?”

Drew Ensign, a deputy assistant attorney general, said the government doesn’t have evidence to contradict the belief that Abrego Garcia is still in El Salvador.

Xinis sounded exasperated that Ensign couldn’t tell her where Abrego Garcia is, what the government has done to arrange for his return or what more it plans to do to get him back to the U.S.

“That is extremely troubling,” she said.

The judge repeatedly asked Ensign about what has been done, asking pointedly: “Have they done anything?” — to which Ensign said he didn’t have personal knowledge of what had been done.

“So that means they’ve done nothing,” the judge said, adding later: “Despite this court’s clear directive, your clients have done nothing to facilitate the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia.”

For his part, Ensign stressed that the government was “actively considering what could be done” and said that Abrego Garcia’s case involved three Cabinet agencies and significant coordination.

Before the hearing ended, Xinis ordered the U.S. to provide daily status updates on plans to return Abrego Garcia.

“I guess my message, for what it’s worth, is: if you can do it, do it tomorrow,” she said.

In a brief filed before the hearing, Trump administration attorneys told Xinis that her deadline for information was “impractical” and that they lacked enough time to review Thursday’s Supreme Court’s ruling.

The U.S. attorneys also wrote that it was “unreasonable” for the U.S. government “to reveal potential steps before those steps are reviewed, agreed upon, and vetted.”

“Foreign affairs cannot operate on judicial timelines, in part because it involves sensitive country-specific considerations wholly inappropriate for judicial review,” the attorneys wrote.

After the hearing, Abrego Garcia’s lawyer told reporters that “he should be here in the United States.”

Flanked by Abrego Garcia’s wife and backed by supporters, attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said he’s hoping for a “meaningful” government update on Saturday.

“If they don’t take today’s order seriously, we’ll respond,” he said.

Meanwhile, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele is expected to visit Washington on Monday. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked Friday if President Donald Trump wanted Bukele to bring Abrego Garcia.