Washington — The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to intervene in an ongoing legal battle over a Maryland man who was mistakenly arrested and removed to El Salvador last month.
The Justice Department’s request for emergency relief from the high court comes as it faces a court-ordered 11:59 p.m. deadline to return the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, to the U.S. Abrego Garcia was deported to a Salvadoran supermax prison on March 15 despite a 2019 protective order that should have prevented him from being sent to the country.
The Trump administration is now asking the Supreme Court to block that district court order, claiming that it “sets the United States up for failure” because it cannot compel El Salvador to “follow a federal judge’s bidding.”
“The Constitution charges the president, not federal district courts, with the conduct of foreign diplomacy and protecting the nation against foreign terrorists, including by effectuating their removal,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in a filing.
The dispute over Abrego Garcia’s removal sparked widespread attention and outrage after the Trump administration admitted in a court filing last week that his deportation to El Salvador was an “administrative error” and “oversight.” The 29-year-old father was removed from the U.S. on a series of deportation flights transporting hundreds of people to the notorious Salvadoran prison known as CECOT.
Those flights are at the center of a separate high-profile court battle involving President Trump’s attempts to use the wartime Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador. The Supreme Court is currently weighing a separate request from the Justice Department to allow it to resume deportations using the seldom-invoked authority.
Abrego Garcia, a native of El Salvador, came to the U.S. illegally in 2011 when he was 16 years old, according to court records. In 2019, he was arrested alongside three other men in Maryland and detained by federal immigration authorities while an immigration judge examined his case.
During a bond hearing before the immigration judge, the Department of Homeland Security put forth evidence claiming that a “proven and reliable source” confirmed Abrego Garcia had ties to the MS-13 gang. The judge denied his request for release on bond, which was upheld by an immigration appeals board.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have argued in court filings that the only evidence of his alleged gang ties came from a confidential informant who claimed he was an active member of MS-13 and the fact that he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and sweatshirt when he was arrested. They also said Abrego Garcia has no criminal history. “He has never been charged or convicted of any criminal charges, in the United States, El Salvador, or any other country,” his lawyers wrote.
Abrego Garcia was released from federal custody after another immigration judge granted him a “withholding of removal” to El Salvador, a legal status that bars officials from removing individuals who prove they are more likely than not to be subject to persecution in their home country. In the order, the judge found that if Abrego Garcia returned to El Salvador, he would likely face persecution by local gangs.
Abrego Garcia’s wife told CBS News that her husband attended regular check-ins with immigration authorities after he was released and was working as a sheet metal worker. But he was arrested again on March 12 because of what the Trump administration said was his “prominent role” in MS-13 and questioned about his ties to the group, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated as a “foreign terrorist organization” in February.
Abrego Garcia was then transferred to a detention facility in Texas, his wife said, and then placed on the flight to El Salvador on March 15.
While the Trump administration acknowledged that it erred in removing Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, it opposed efforts to bring him back to the U.S. because of his alleged affiliation with MS-13. The Justice Department has also argued that the government does not have jurisdiction over Abrego Garcia anymore because he is in the custody of the Salvadoran government.
A federal judge in Maryland held a hearing on the challenge to Abrego Garcia’s removal, and ultimately ordered the administration to return him to the U.S. by 11:59 p.m. Monday. During the proceedings, a Justice Department attorney, Erez Reuveni, conceded that Abrego Garcia “should not have been removed,” and said he was “frustrated” by a lack of information from the Trump administration as to why Abrego Garcia was arrested by immigration authorities. Reuveni was placed on administration leave in the wake of the hearing.
The judge, Paula Xinis, issued a scathing opinion Sunday that said the federal government “confessed grievous error” that “shocks the conscience.”
The Trump administration appealed the district court’s decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit and asked it to swiftly put Xinis’ order requiring Abrego Garcia to be returned to the U.S. on hold.
Sauer then sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court. His request for the high court to block Xinis’ decision came just before the 4th Circuit rejected the administration’s request to step into the dispute.
The solicitor general, who was confirmed to the role last week, called the district court’s decision “unprecedented and indefensible,” and claimed the the lower courts are trying 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.”
