The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Trump administration must help bring back a Maryland man who was wrongly deported to El Salvador.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who had lived in Maryland since he was 16, was sent back to El Salvador in March despite a 2019 court order blocking his removal. The Trump administration admitted it was an “administrative error,” but claimed there was nothing they could do now that he’s in Salvadoran custody.
The Supreme Court disagreed.
In a decision issued Thursday, the Court said the lower judge was right to step in and make sure Abrego Garcia’s case is handled “as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.” The justices told the judge to clean up the wording of her order, but said she was within her rights to act.
“There were no noted dissents.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by the court’s other two liberal justices, wrote, “The District Court should continue to ensure that the Government lives up to its obligations to follow the law.”
The Trump administration argued that courts can’t force the president to act in matters involving foreign governments. “Courts cannot order the Executive to conduct the country’s foreign relations in a particular way,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer claimed.
But the courts clearly see it differently.
Abrego Garcia is being held in El Salvador’s infamous CECOT prison — the same facility where the U.S. is now paying $6 million to jail deportees for the next year. His lawyers say that doesn’t let the U.S. off the hook.
“To the extent returning Abrego Garcia from a U.S.-contracted facility regularly visited by U.S. officials proves impossible, or requires the Presidential diplomacy the Government suggests, the Government may present those facts to the district court,” his attorneys wrote.
“But the Government cannot have license to evade a court order based on hypothetical obstacles that are nothing more than a figment of its imagination.”
The Trump administration claims Abrego Garcia is part of the MS-13 gang based on a tip from a confidential informant who placed him in New York — a state where Abrego Garcia’s family says he’s never even lived.
He’s married to a U.S. citizen and is the father of a disabled U.S.-born son.
His case has become a flashpoint in lawsuits challenging Trump-era deportations, including others being held in the same prison under the Alien Enemies Act — many of whom, like Abrego Garcia, say they have no gang ties.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who first ordered the government to get Abrego Garcia back, now has to clarify what she meant by “effectuate” his return. The Supreme Court agreed with the spirit of her ruling, even if the wording was vague.
The Trump administration has fought a series of similar emergency battles in the Supreme Court — winning some, like lifting blocks on teacher grant freezes and firings — but losing others, including a failed attempt to cancel billions in foreign aid.
This time, they lost again. The man they deported by mistake has a right to be brought back.
