U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis had a measured demeanor in a recent court hearing with the Trump administration. The Department of Justice sent an experienced immigration litigator to defend the government’s deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvador national who was wrongfully removed due to an administrative error.

“The facts of the case seem to be largely undisputed,” said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, the attorney representing Abrego Garcia and his family in his opening volley.

“Well, we’ll see about that,” responded Xinis, almost as a warning to respect the process.

Xinis, an Obama administration appointee, is in the national spotlight after her ruling turned into a standoff with President Donald Trump. White House officials have stalled Abrego Garcia’s return in what legal experts have called “flat defiance of the rule of law.”

The Justice Department appealed Xinis’ decision, and the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which paused the order for a few days before ordering the administration to work to return Abrego Garcia. Xinis asked for updates about its progress almost daily and tried to compel testimony from the administration. The case is ongoing.

Xinis told attorneys she saw something as a fact only if there was evidence to back it up. Those who met her as a cub attorney said she has done so throughout her career.

Her ascension to the federal court, her colleagues said, was extraordinary. Xinis approaches her work meticulously, committed to listening to both parties with “balanced sympathy.”

Her ruling in the Abrego Garcia case has drawn criticism from Trump officials. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called Xinis a “Marxist” who “now thinks she’s president of El Salvador,” according to CNN.

James Wyda, the federal public defender for the District of Maryland, rejects the notion of Xinis as an activist judge.

“If the cases involved an indigent defendant, a poor person charged with a misdemeanor or the policies of the president of the United States, Judge Xinis will handle it the same way,” Wyda said. “She will apply the law to the facts and do the right thing.”

Xinis was an “unusual hire” at his office, Wyda said.

She was a younger candidate than the Office of the Federal Public Defender usually goes for. In her interview, though, she was compelling and smart. Everyone who met her wanted her to be hired, Wyda said.

“And we were proved right,” he said.

Xinis had just finished her clerkship with Judge Diana Gribbon Motz in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Motz became a mentor, Wyda said, and Xinis latched on to her belief in the importance of due process.

Xinis’ first oral argument as assistant federal public defender was an appeal in a criminal case riddled with “evidentiary and constitutional issues,” Wyda said. She was measured and calm, with the confidence and preparedness of someone with years of experience.

“She was the best lawyer in the court that day,” Wyda said. “No one would have known it was her first argument.”

Xinis joined the Murphy Falcon & Murphy firm as a trial attorney in 2011, rising to partner after two years. She handled “complex civil actions as well as mass and class actions in state and federal court,” according to the U.S. District Court.

The Baltimore firm has a “very strong reputation of standing up against injustice,” said former Sen. Ben Cardin, who recommended Xinis to former President Barack Obama in 2015.

He remembered it was a competitive pool, with likely “50 times more applicants” than spots available. Yet, Cardin said, Xinis went from a role of advocacy to a trial judge seamlessly. She had an “outstanding demeanor,” Cardin said, and she looked at the law with objectivity.

F. Michael Higginbotham, who taught constitutional law at the University of Baltimore, looked at her candidacy and vetted her for Cardin and former Sen. Barbara Mikulski. When making recommendations to the president, senators are usually looking for candidates who have civil and criminal litigation experience. They must be able to handle complex trials, Higginbotham said.

She had “stellar academic credentials,” he said. She went to the University of Virginia for her bachelor’s degree, then to Yale Law School. What stood out, though, was her experience as a public defender. Traditionally, candidates have come from the prosecutorial side, Higginbotham said. He saw her experience would be a plus to the Maryland federal bench.

She also cared for the position beyond an obvious career step, Cardin said. Xinis, Cardin said, wanted to protect the rights of ordinary Marylanders against the abuse of power. Her experience as a public defender put the needs of those who are often underrepresented in the political system in the front of her mind.

“I was proud to recommend her to the president,” Cardin said.

The administration’s response to Xinis’ ruling has brewed an “important constitutional moment” in the country, Higginbotham said, with the eerie opportunity to define due process. Higginbotham said Xinis has the temperament, judgment and experience to handle the case well.

Expanding on what some experts have alluded to as a possible constitutional crisis, Wyda said the rule of law “might be at stake in some of this litigation.”

“Our country is fortunate that someone so smart, so careful, with so much integrity as Judge Xinis is presiding over this litigation,” he said.

Banner reporter Daniel Zawodny contributed to this story.