Even Trump’s lawyers concede that deporting Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was illegal.
The facts underlying Noem v. Abrego Garcia are shocking, even by the standards of the Trump administration’s treatment of immigrants. The Supreme Court just ruled that the immigrant at the heart of the case get some relief — but that relief is only partial.
In mid-March, Trump’s government deported Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, where he is currently detained in a notorious prison supposedly reserved for terrorists. He was deported even though, in 2019, an immigration judge had issued an order explicitly forbidding the government from sending Abrego Garcia to El Salvador because he faced a “clear probability of future persecution” if returned to that nation. This court order is still in effect today.SCOTUS, Explained
Get the latest developments on the US Supreme Court from senior correspondent Ian Millhiser.
No one, including Trump’s own lawyers, has tried to justify this decision under the law. The administration claims that Abrego Garcia was deported as the result of an “administrative error.” When a federal judge asked a Justice Department lawyer why the federal government cannot bring him back to this country, that lawyer responded, “The first thing I did was ask my clients that very question. I’ve not received, to date, an answer that I find satisfactory.”
The judge ordered the federal government to “facilitate and effectuate the return of [Abrego Garcia] to the United States by no later than 11:59 PM on Monday, April 7.”
And yet Abrego Garcia remains in El Salvador. After the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to vacate the judge’s order, Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocked the requirement that he be returned to give his Court time to consider the case.
