April 11 (UPI) — The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia who it said was illegally removed from the United States.
The Supreme Court order said U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis’ ruling, challenged by the Justice Department “properly requires the government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”
“The United States acknowledges that Abrego Garcia was subject to a withholding order forbidding his removal to El Salvador and that the removal to El Salvador was therefore illegal,” the unsigned decision said.
Garcia’s attorney Andrew Rossman told NBC News “the rule of law won today.
“Time to bring him home,” Rossman said.
The Supreme Court added the U.S. District Court of Maryland must clarify the intended scope of the term “effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States and that “the government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.”
The ruling noted, however, that Xinis must “show due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”
The Justice Department responded to the ruling, saying that by “directly noting the deference owed to the Executive Branch, this ruling once again illustrates that activist judges do not have the jurisdiction to seize control of the president’s authority to conduct foreign policy.”
It had previously stated that Xinis’ order that the government “facilitate and effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return by 11:59 p.m. on Monday was “impossible” because he was now in the custody of El Salvador where he was born.
Chief Justice John Roberts paused the order for the Supreme Court to weigh the case, a decision that Justice Sonya Sotomayor said should not have happened in a statement delivered alongside the court’s two other liberal justices.
In the statement, Sotomayor said the Trump administration’s stance “implies that it could deport and incarcerate any person, including U.S. citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene.”
“The government has cited no basis in law for Abrego Garcia’s warrantless arrest, his removal to El Salvador, or his confinement in a Salvadoran prison,” Sotomayor wrote.
The Justice Department has claimed that Abrego Garcia, who has not been charged with a crime and has had protected immigrant status since 2019, is a member of the gang MS-13, a claim that his attorneys have said the government has failed to provide evidence for, saying he fled El Salvador to escape gang violence.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent said that he was sent to El Salvador “in error.”
“Instead of hastening to correct its egregious error, the government dismissed it as an ‘oversight.’ The government now requests an order from this court permitting it to leave Abrego Garcia, a husband and father without a criminal record, in a Salvadoran prison for no reason recognized by the law,” Sotomayor wrote.
The Supreme Court order requires the government to provide Abrego Garcia with full “due process of law” including notice and opportunity to be heard in court in any future proceedings after he was sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador along with dozens of others the administration has claimed are gang members under the 1798 Allies Enemies Act.
The Supreme Court previously allowed the government to resume but also ruled on Monday that the administration must offer those targeted by these deportations to offer a chance to prove they are not gang members.
“It has been the Government’s own well-established policy to ‘facilitate [an] alien’s return to the United States if … the alien’s presence is necessary for continued administrative removal proceedings’ in cases where a noncitizen has been removed pending immigration proceedings,” Sotomayor said.
Sotomayor said the Trump administration must also comply with its obligations under the Convention Against Torture.
