Supreme Court orders Trump to help free Maryland father from El Salvador prison

WASHINGTON (CN) — A Maryland man deported to an infamous prison in El Salvador must be freed, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday, upholding a federal judge’s order forcing the Trump administration to facilitate his return.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia was swept up in deportation flights last month and sent to a terrorism center in El Salvador despite a judge’s order finding local gangs would persecute him in his home country.

A Maryland judge ordered the Trump administration to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. by Monday at midnight, but the Justice Department said the request was impossible and asked the Supreme Court to intervene.

Chief Justice John Roberts, a George W. Bush appointee, granted an administrative stay lifting the initial deadline for Abrego Garcia’s return. But upon full review, the Supreme Court upheld the judge’s ruling.

“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,” an unsigned statement issued by the court said.

None of the justices publicly dissented from the order, but it is not clear if the decision was unanimous.

The court’s order left open questions about how or when the government should free Abrego Garcia or whether he should be returned to the U.S. The justices remanded for clarification on what actions the government must take to correct its error, but the Supreme Court suggested that the lower court might have exceeded its authority by ordering his return to the U.S. on a short deadline.

“The district court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the executive branch in the conduct of foreign affairs,” the court wrote in its statement. “For its part, the government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.”

In a separate statement, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said precedent warranted his return to the U.S.

“It has been the government’s own well-established policy to ‘facilitate [an] alien’s return to the United States if … the alien’s presence is necessary for continued administrative removal proceedings’ in cases where a noncitizen has been removed pending immigration proceedings,” the Barack Obama appointee wrote.

The Trump administration conceded that Abrego Garcia was sent to El Salvador’s Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT, by accident but fought an order to bring him home. U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer told the high court Abrego Garcia was in the custody of the El Salvador government and the United States’ hands were tied.

Joined by Justices Elena Kagan, another Obama appointee, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Joe Biden appointee, Sotomayor chided the government for dismissing “its egregious error” as an oversight.

Sotomayor said there was no basis in law for Abrego Garcia’s arrest, removal or imprisonment. She said the Trump administration wanted to “leave Abrego Garcia, a husband and father without a criminal record, in a Salvadoran prison for no reason recognized by the law.”

“The government’s argument, moreover, 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,” Sotomayor continued.

Sotomayor would have declined the order in full instead of granting an administrative stay and remanding, but she stated that the court affirmed that the proper remedy is to give Abrego Garcia the process he was denied when unlawfully removed.

“That means the government must comply with its obligation to provide Abrego Garcia with ‘due process of law,’ including notice and an opportunity to be heard, in any future proceedings,” Sotomayor wrote. “It must also comply with its obligations under the Convention Against Torture.”

Under a deal with El Salvador’s president, the Trump administration is paying the country $6 million to hold U.S. deportees. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem toured the prison last month, calling CECOT one of the tools in the U.S.’s toolkit.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys said the statement is proof that the Trump administration can facilitate migrant returns.

“The U.S. Government functionally controls Abrego Garcia’s detention — it has simply contracted with El Salvador to be the jailer,” Abrego Garcia’s attorneys wrote.

Abrego Garcia was working as a sheet metal apprentice in Maryland, where he lived with his wife, a U.S. citizen, and their three children before his arrest. The Department of Homeland Security gave him a permit to legally work in the U.S., according to his attorneys.

A U.S. immigration judge released Abrego Garcia after shielding him from deportation to El Salvador in 2019. Immigrant and Customs Enforcement did not try to capture him until Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared MS-13 a foreign terrorist organization. The Trump administration claims Abrego Garcia is a member of the gang — a charge his lawyers strongly contest.

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