Supreme Court Tells US to Seek Wrongly Deported Man’s Return (2)

The US Supreme Court said President Donald Trump’s administration must take steps to bring back a Maryland man who immigration officials conceded was wrongly deported to a notorious prison in his native El Salvador.

Without any public dissents, the justices on Thursday largely rejected Trump administration contentions that the trial court order required actions that were beyond the government’s authority in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

“The order 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 court said in a three-paragraph order.

The decision establishes a limit on Trump’s deportation power as he pushes for sweeping authority with minimal judicial review. It follows the Supreme Court’s decision Monday to let the administration use a wartime law to try to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members as long as they first have a chance to make their case against deportation to a judge.

US District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland had ordered the government to “facilitate and effectuate” the return of Abrego Garcia, setting a April 7 deadline that has now passed.

The court said the “effectuate” part of the judge’s order was unclear and might exceed her authority. The court told Xinis to clarify her order “with due regard for the deference owed to the executive branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in a separate opinion for the court’s three liberals that Xinis “should continue to ensure that the government lives up to its obligations to follow the law.”

Late Thursday, Xinis issued a more detailed order directing the administration to “take all available steps to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States as soon as possible.” She ordered the government to tell her in writing Friday morning about what steps it is taking and set a hearing for Friday afternoon.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Justice Department, which says Abrego Garcia was flown to El Salvador because of an “administrative error,” has argued it no longer has any legal authority over him.

“The United States does not control the sovereign nation of El Salvador, nor can it compel El Salvador to follow a federal judge’s bidding,” US Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the Supreme Court.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said the administration has the power to bring him back, contending that El Salvador is effectively a contractor serving as the US government’s jailer. The US is paying El Salvador $6 million to hold people at its CECOT prison.

“There is no dispute that Abrego Garcia is only in El Salvador because the United States sent him there,” the inmate’s lawyers argued. “There is likewise no dispute that he is being held only because the United States has requested that he be held.”

Abrego Garcia had been lawfully living in Maryland with his wife and three children, all US citizens. Under a 2019 immigration court order, he can’t be deported to El Salvador, where he says he would face gang-based extortion and persecution.

Immigration officials arrested Abrego Garcia March 12 and accused him of playing a “prominent role in MS-13,” though he hasn’t been convicted of a crime or charged with one. He was flown to El Salvador on March 15 along with more than 200 other alleged gang members.

The case is Noem v. Abrego Garcia, 24A949.

(Updates with late Thursday order by Xinis in eighth paragraph.)

--With assistance from Catherine Lucey.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Elizabeth Wasserman, Peter Blumberg

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