Washington – The Supreme Court said Thursday that the Trump administration must “facilitate” the liberation of a Maryland man who was wrongly deported to a prison in El Salvador.
The Court granted in part and partially rejected an emergency application filed by the Department of Justice that challenged the order of a judge that Kilmar Abrego García recovers from a prison in El Salvador, where he was sent on March 15 along with alleged members of Venezuelan gangs.
The decision means that the Administration does not have to try to return Abrego García to the United States because a deadline imposed by the judge has already expired, but “it must be prepared to share what can with respect to the steps it has taken and the perspective of more steps,” said the decision without sign.
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The judge of the District Court may have exceeded his authority in saying that the Government not only had to “facilitate” but also “carry out” the return of Abrego García, the court added. The judge has to “clarify his directive, with the due consideration of the deference to the Executive Branch in foreign affairs conduct,” said the court order.
There were no dissident votes, but the three liberal judges of the Court signed in a separate statement written by Judge Sonia Sotomayor saying that they agreed that “the appropriate remedy is to provide Abrego García all the process to which he had been given right if El Salvador had not been eliminated illegally.”
Abrego García was mistaken for a notorious prison in El Salvador on March 15 as part of the aggressive plan and very disputed the Trump Administration to send to the alleged members of the Venezuelan Train of Aragua.
Immigration officials claim that Abrego García, who entered the United States illegally, is a member of the MS-13 gang, but has admitted that he should not have been sent to El Salvador, his country of birth, qualifying him as an “administrative error.”
Abrego García lived in Beltsville, Maryland, with his wife and three children, all of whom have special needs. He arrived in the United States to escape gang violence, says his lawyers.
In 2019, the government began an effort to deport it, claiming that it was a member of the MS-13 gang. An immigration judge ruled that Abrego García could not be deported to El Salvador because there was “a clear probability of future persecution.”
Until he was arrested in March, he worked as a sheet worker in Maryland and registered with immigration officials when necessary, his lawyers said.
Last week, the American district judge based in Maryland, Paula Xinis, ordered the government to “facilitate and make the return” of Abrego García at 11:59 pm on Monday.
After not revoking the finding in an appeals court, the Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court. On Monday, the president of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, issued a temporary stay, while the court decided that the next steps take.
General lawyer D. John Sauer wrote in judicial documents that judges do not have the power to “take control over foreign relations” by forcing officials to negotiate with El Salvador. He said the Trump administration has guaranteed that no one deported to prison in El Salvador will be tortured.
Abrego García’s lawyers described their removal to El Salvador as a “Kafka -style error,” saying that the Salvadoran government was not actively looking for extradition and had never been accused of a crime.
His case is the last high profile battle that arises from the attempt of President Donald Trump to exercise broad presidential power to deport immigrants, which often leads to statements that his rights have been violated.
A lawyer from the Department of Justice in the case was placed on administrative license due to the comments he made in the Court when he told the judge that he was “frustrated” that he could not answer some of his questions.
In another case, the Supreme Court blocked on Monday a decision of a federal judge who prevented Venezuelans from being deported under a rarely invoked law called Alien Enemies Law.
