The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Trump administration must “facilitate” the return of the Salvadorian man who was wrongly sent to a notorious prison for terrorists.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported to the terrorist prison in El Salvador based on claims that he was a member of the MS-13 gang, and the administration has argued that it is unable to bring him back to the U.S. Garcia originally entered the U.S. in about 2011 and is from El Salvador.
‘He’s a husband, father and working man. Not a criminal.’
The administration has admitted that a “clerical error” led to Garcia being deported from Maryland, where he lived with his wife and children, who are all U.S. citizens.
On Thursday the court ruled 9-0 that a lower court order telling the administration to bring Garcia back to the U.S. must stand.
“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,” read the Supreme Court ruling.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis had previously rejected the evidence the administration had presented that Garcia was a member of the criminal gang and ordered him returned.
“I haven’t been given any evidence,” Xinis said. “In a court of law, when someone is accused of membership in such a violent and predatory organization, it comes in the form of an indictment, a complaint, a criminal proceeding that has [a] robust process so we can assess the facts.”
Many on the right criticized Xinis as being biased because she had been nominated by former President Barack Obama.
Critics of the deportation said that the administration had violated Garcia’s due process rights.
“Kilmar Abrego Garcia had a legal right to be in America. He’s a husband, father and working man. Not a criminal,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas). “Yet he was deported to a gulag in El Salvador with no due process and Presidents Trump and Bukele refuse to return him to his family in the U.S. We stood with his family today to demand Kilmar’s return.”
But Solicitor General John Sauer argued that the judicial branch was improperly usurping the power of the executive in its rulings.
“While the United States concedes that removal to El Salvador was an administrative error,” Sauer wrote, “that does not license district courts to seize control over foreign relations, treat the executive branch as a subordinate diplomat, and demand that the United States let a member of a foreign terrorist organization into America tonight.”
An attorney for Garcia had previously said he was confident he could have him returned and added that the administration undermined its argument that it had no recourse to get him out of the prison.
“They got Kristi Noem out of that prison,” said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg about the Homeland Security secretary.
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