Supreme Court Pauses Order to Bring Back Man Deported to El Salvador

The Supreme Court has paused the enforcement of a judicial order commanding the U.S. government to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia — who authorities admitted was deported to El Salvador as a result of an “administrative error” — to the United States by midnight on Monday. 

In a brief missive, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the return order issued by the United States District Court for the District of Maryland was to be “stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the [Supreme] Court.” 

Abrego Garcia was one of over 200 Salvadoran and Venezuelan migrants accused of terrorism and gang affiliations with little evidence, and deported to El Salvador to be held in prisons accused of human rights violations. The mass deportation, which skirted standard immigration law and due process rights, was a potentially unlawful abuse of the 18th century Alien Enemies Act. Last week, the Trump administration admitted that Abrego Garcia, who was under a protection from removal order, had been erroneously deported. The Maryland father was accused, with no concrete basis, of being a member of MS-13 by the Trump administration, despite never being convicted or charged with a crime or gang related activity. 

On Sunday, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis reaffirmed an order commanding the Trump administration to return Abrego Garcia to U.S. soil. The White House had previously attempted to claim that since Abrego Garcia had been handed over to El Salvador, they had no jurisdiction to secure his release. The Trump administration has a multi-million dollar deal with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to hold the deportees in his now infamous penal system. 

“As Defendants acknowledge, they had no legal authority to arrest him, no justification to detain him, and no grounds to send him to El Salvador — let alone deliver him into one of the most  dangerous prisons in the Western Hemisphere,” Xinis wrote. “Having confessed grievous error, the [Government] now argue that this Court lacks the power to hear this case, and they lack the power to order Abrego Garcia’s return.” 

“The facts are that the United States exerts control over each of the nearly 200 migrants sent to CECOT. The Defendants detained them, transported them by plane, and paid for their placement in the mega-jail until ‘the United States’ decides ‘their long-term disposition.’ Against this backdrop, Defendants have produced no evidence to suggest they cannot secure one such detainee, Abrego Garcia, for return to the United States,” she added.

While Abrego Garcia’s case has been garnering international attention given the seemingly blatant lack of basis for his detention, and the government’s open admission that they acted in error, he is one of potentially dozens of innocents currently trapped in Bukele’s gulag. According to CBS News’ 60 Minutes, “an overwhelming majority have no apparent criminal convictions or even criminal charges.”