The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously upheld a lower court order directing the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego García, a Maryland man who was wrongly deported to Venezuela.
The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously upheld the lower court order directing the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego García, a Maryland man who was wrongly deported to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.
The Supreme Court also directed the lower court to clarify aspects of the order.
“The order properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego García’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 order states.
It is undisputed that the Trump administration made a mistake.
The Justice Department admitted to deporting Abrego García to a maximum security prison in El Salvador, even though an immigration judge in 2019 ordered that he not be deported. The judge did so under an immigration law called “withholding of removal”, which is a protection, like asylum, for people facing persecution in their home country.
But the Trump administration has said a court cannot order it to fix its mistake and bring Abrego García back to the United States.
According to the Trump administration, such an order would be “constitutionally intolerable.” The government has compared the court order to return Abrego García to an order to “‘effectuate’ the end of the war in Ukraine or return hostages from Gaza.”
Abrego García should not have been deported
Abrego García received this protective legal status six years ago. That’s when he proved to the court he was highly likely to be persecuted by the government or gangs in El Salvador due to a specific reason, as required under immigration law.
Unlike asylum or refugee status, the status known as “withholding of removal” is not a pathway to citizenship. It allows a person to live and work in the United States indefinitely and not be deported to their country of nationality if they face persecution there.
The government states it arrested and deported Abrego García on March 15 because he is a gang member. When Abrego García appealed his deportation, the federal district and appellate courts determined that the government provided no credible evidence of gang membership.
That’s important, because the government failed to follow proper procedure to deport Abrego García based on gang membership. When someone is in “withholding of removal” status, the law requires the government to reopen immigration proceedings based on new evidence and seek to formally terminate the legal withholding status.
