WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Thursday that the Trump administration is required to "facilitate" the release of a Maryland man who was wrongly deported to an El Salvador prison.
The court partly granted and partly rejected an emergency request filed by the Justice Department contesting a judge’s order that Kilmar Abrego Garcia be retrieved from a prison in El Salvador where he was sent March 15 along with men alleged to be Venezuelan gang members.
“The rule of law won today. Time to bring him home," Andrew Rossman, one of Abrego Garcia's lawyers, said in an email.
The decision means the administration does not immediately have to try to return Abrego Garcia to the United States because a judge-imposed deadline has already expired, but it "should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps," the unsigned decision said.
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The district court judge may have exceeded her authority in saying the government had to not just "facilitate" but also "effectuate" Abrego Garcia's return, the court added. The court has to "clarify its directive, with due regard to the deference owed to the executive branch in the conduct of foreign affairs," the court order said.
A Justice Department spokesman said in a statement that the Supreme Court decision recognized that "it is the exclusive prerogative of the president to conduct foreign affairs."
As a result, the ruling "illustrates that activist judges do not have the jurisdiction to seize control of the president's authority to conduct foreign policy," the spokesman added.
There were no dissenting votes, but the court's three liberal justices signed on to a separate statement authored by Justice Sonia Sotomayor saying they agreed that "the proper remedy is to provide Abrego Garcia with all the process to which he would have been entitled had he not been unlawfully removed to El Salvador."
But Sotomayor added that she believed Chief Justice John Roberts should not have issued a temporary stay Monday that meant the deadline for the government to act was missed.
Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported to a notorious El Salvador prison on March 15 as part of the Trump administration’s aggressive and heavily contested plan to send people alleged to be members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua there.Immigration officials allege Abrego Garcia, who entered the United States illegally, is a member of the MS-13 gang but have conceded he should not have been sent to El Salvador, his country of birth, calling it an “administrative error.”
Abrego Garcia lived in Beltsville, Maryland, with his wife and three children, all of whom have special needs. He came to the United States to escape gang violence, his lawyers say.
In 2019, the government began an effort to deport him, alleging that he was an MS-13 gang member. An immigration judge ruled Abrego Garcia could not be deported to El Salvador because there was “a clear probability of future persecution.”
Until he was detained in March, he worked as a sheet metal worker in Maryland and checked in with immigration officials when required, his lawyers said.
Last week, Maryland-based U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered that the government “facilitate and effectuate the return” of Abrego Garcia by 11:59 p.m. Monday.
After it failed to overturn the finding at an appeals court, the Trump administration turned to the Supreme Court.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in court papers that judges do not have the power to “seize control over foreign relations” by forcing officials to negotiate with El Salvador. He said the Trump administration has guaranteed that no one deported to the prison in El Salvador will be tortured.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers described his removal to El Salvador as a “Kafka-esque mistake,” saying that the Salvadoran government was not actively seeking his extradition and that he had never been charged with a crime.
His case is the latest high-profile legal battle arising from President Donald Trump’s attempt to exert broad presidential power to deport immigrants, often leading to claims that their rights have been violated.
A Justice Department lawyer in the case was placed on administrative leave because he told the judge in court that he was “frustrated” that he could not answer some of her questions.
In another case, the Supreme Court on Monday blocked a ruling by a federal judge that prevented people alleged to be Venezuelan gang members from being deported under a rarely invoked law called the Alien Enemies Act.
The court said Venezuelans targeted for deportation should be given a chance to challenge the government's action.
Thursday's decision could give a boost to Venezuelans who were deported without due process before courts intervened.
