Trump admin must ‘facilitate’ return of man erroneously deported to El Salvador, Supreme Court says

The Supreme Court is requiring the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of a Maryland man deported last month to a notorious prison in El Salvador due to what officials described as an “administrative error.”

The justices turned down the administration’s request to set aside a judge’s order that U.S. officials seek Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s release and return to the U.S., after he was flown to El Salvador despite an immigration-court order that he not be sent there due to the threat of persecution by a local gang.

The judge’s 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 Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The high court’s ruling doesn’t explicitly mention bringing Abrego Garcia back to the United States, but it leaves in place the bulk of U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis’ order that specifically required his “return” to the United States.

The Supreme Court’s decision is a significant rejection of the Trump administration’s claim that it lacked any power — and therefore could not be compelled — to attempt to remedy its admitted error. It also comes just days after the justices ruled that the administration must provide due process to other foreign nationals that President Donald Trump has sought to quickly deport using rarely invoked war powers.

Thursday’s ruling could have consequences that extend beyond Abrego Garcia’s case. The Salvadoran citizen was deported aboard a controversial series of flights last month that also included about 130 Venezuelan men who were expelled from the U.S. after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 against alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang.

The new decision explicitly declares that individuals who contend they were illegally deported from the U.S. can continue to seek remedies from U.S. courts. That could open the door to challenges from those deported to El Salvador under the wartime statute who are now locked up in an anti-terrorism prison known for its harsh conditions.

On Monday, the justices similarly ruled that future efforts by the administration to summarily deport the Venezuelan nationals must include a chance for them to challenge the allegations that they are members of a gang. But that ruling did not reference the fate of the roughly 130 men who were already transferred to El Salvador without due process.

The latest ruling comes as El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, is slated to visit the White House on Monday and discuss the country’s decision to accept U.S. deportees.

Administration must ‘share’ details on case

In the two-page decision, the justices also said the Trump administration must “be prepared to share” more details about its handling of Abrego Garcia and efforts it may have made — or will in the future — to secure his return.

However, the high court did instruct Xinis to show “due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs” as she clarifies a provision in her order that required the U.S. government to “effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s release.

“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,” the Department of Justice said in a statement after the ruling.

Xinis ruled Friday that Abrego Garcia’s deportation was illegal and that the Trump administration needed to arrange to bring him back to the U.S. by midnight Monday. Mere hours before that, Chief Justice John Roberts paused the order to give the Supreme Court time to consider the case. In the decision Thursday, the court noted that deadline has passed and is “no longer effective.”

Justice Department officials argued that it was “impossible” for them to comply with the order, in part because Abrego Garcia, who was born in El Salvador, is now in the custody of that country. They also argued that Xinis’ directive violated the Constitution by intruding on the president’s powers over foreign relations and national security.

The Trump administration’s handling of the case prompted outrage among immigration advocates, who argued that officials’ unwillingness to take any steps to arrange Abrego Garcia’s return indicated foreigners and even Americans could be subject to erroneous deportation with no legal recourse.

The Supreme Court’s liberal wing made just that point Thursday in an opinion that accompanied the court’s order.

“The Government’s argument … 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,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. “That view refutes itself.”

The liberal justices said they would have “denied” outright the government’s request for relief from Xinis’ order.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys contended that courts have repeatedly required the U.S. government to make arrangements for the return of foreigners to the country after a deportation was ruled illegal.

Abrego Garcia’s case

Abrego Garcia entered the U.S. illegally around 2011 and has lived in Maryland for at least the last decade. In 2019, he was arrested in a Home Depot parking lot, but never faced criminal charges. Immigration officials did put him in deportation proceedings after local police flagged him as a suspected member of the MS-13 gang, based on an informant’s claims and his clothes. The government has associated his attire, a Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie, with MS-13. Abrego Garcia denies he has an association with MS-13 or any other gang.

Despite denying his asylum claim in 2019, an immigration judge barred Abrego Garcia’s return to El Salvador because of what he described as a fear of persecution by a gang, Barrio 18, that he claimed had been extorting his family’s pupusa business. That order remained in effect when, on March 12, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement arrested Abrego Garcia in Maryland. Within days he was taken to a detention center in Texas, where officials were holding hundreds of detainees. On March 15, he was put aboard one of three flights to El Salvador, where he was jailed in the anti-terrorism prison known as CECOT.

During a press briefing before Xinis ruled, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called Abrego Garcia a member of the “brutal and vicious” MS-13 gang and said he “will not be returning to our country.”

However, the judge said the government had presented no evidence that Abrego Garcia was a gang member and had essentially abandoned that argument. The Justice Department attorney who argued in her courtroom, Erez Reuveni, has since been suspended for expressing frustration in the Trump administration’s position on the matter. Attorney General Pam Bondi scolded him for what she described as lack of zealous argument on the administration’s behalf.

Officials have not explained in detail why Abrego Garcia was deported to the country an immigration judge prohibited him being sent to, variously describing the episode as due to an “administrative error” or “clerical error.” But the administration’s admitted error was at the center of two judges’ recent decisions to bar the administration from summarily deporting Venezuelan nationals under Trump’s authority to label them “alien enemies.”