In a scene that drips with irony and bureaucratic chaos, a federal judge in Maryland is about to take on the Department of Justice over what seems like a comedy of errors in immigration policy. The juicy tidbit here is the mistaken deportation of a man with alleged ties to the notorious MS-13 gang from the good ol’ USA to El Salvador. What adds a dollop of intrigue to this twist? The President of El Salvador himself, nonchalantly informing the White House during his visit that his country won’t be sending this fellow back to the States anytime soon.

In this tangled web of international relations, Garcia’s lawyer seeks a contempt order against the alleged obstacles that prevent his return. The administration, perhaps not terribly enthused about bringing back a potential gang member, is claiming that extracting a foreign national from the custody of a sovereign nation isn’t exactly as easy as ordering take-out. They point out that existing protocols don’t empower agencies like the Department of Homeland Security to just saunter into another country and scoop someone up.

The Supreme Court offered a smattering of wisdom by asserting that the district court should defer to the executive branch in foreign affairs. That’s a reasonable enough stance, considering that ordering the President or the Secretary of State to storm El Salvador’s jails might not be the most diplomatic approach. Justices handed down a decision as clear as day: district courts lack the jurisdiction to command federal executives to engage in international cloak-and-dagger operations to retrieve alleged criminals.

Now, just as one might think the absurdity might taper off, an Obama-appointed federal judge steps in to block the Trump administration from mass-revoking the legal status and work permits of over 530,000 migrants from a medley of countries. Each migrant case, rather than being a sweeping action, is insisted to be reviewed individually, adhering to due process. Cue the exasperated sighs from administration officials already exhausted by what they see as a system overrun by fraud thanks to previous administrations’ humanitarian gestures.

So, while some might say bureaucracy is merely doing its thing by ensuring due process, others could argue we’re looking at legal logjams that would take eons to unravel. This is what makes politics a gift that keeps on giving—a constant supply of fodder for our amusement, frustration, or utter disbelief at how layers of red tape seem to grow like weeds, often trapping the very essence of common sense.