The Supreme Court on Monday temporarily paused a lower court-ordered deadline to return to the US a Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, granting the Trump administration additional time to review the case.
Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a sheet metal worker and father of three, was deported last month after the Trump administration admitted to an “administrative error.”
The error resulted in Abrego Garcia, 38, being put on a plane and sent to El Salvador’s notorious high-security prison CECOT, despite a 2019 ruling by an immigration judge that protected him from deportation due to death threats from a gang targeting his family’s pupusa business.
Related article Supreme Court pauses midnight deadline to return man mistakenly deported to El Salvador The Trump administration has alleged Garcia Abrego was a ranking member of the MS-13 gang. However, Abrego Garcia hasn’t been charged with a crime during six years of routine check-ins with immigration officials. His attorneys and family have rejected the government’s claims, calling his detention unjust and a violation of due process. The case has sparked broader legal debates over executive reach and due process in deportation cases.
Here’s a timeline of notable developments: March 12 Abrego Garcia is arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after completing a shift at a construction site. He was pulled over with his young son in the car, according to court records. Minutes later, his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, rushed to the scene after being warned by a Department of Homeland Security official to retrieve their child or face Child Protective Services. Officers informed Vasquez Sura that her husband’s “immigration status had changed” and took him into custody. Vasquez Sura described placing their crying son in the car as she said goodbye to her husband, according to an affidavit. Their son, who has autism, has since been inconsolable, clutching his father’s work shirts and sobbing, she wrote. March 15 Despite the 2019 court ruling protecting him from deportation to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia is mistakenly placed on a deportation flight and sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, a prison with a capacity for 40,000 inmates and intended for violent Salvadoran gangs known as maras, including MS-13 and Barrio 18. This undated photo provided by CASA, an immigrant advocacy organization, in April, shows Kilmar Abrego Garcia. CASA/AP March 24 Vasquez Sura files an affidavit, describing the emotional toll her husband’s deportation has taken on their family. She stated she last heard from him on March 15, when he called, sounding frightened, to say he was being deported to CECOT. Days later, she identified him in photos of detainees at the Salvadoran prison. “This has been a nightmare for my family,” Vasquez Sura wrote in her affidavit. “My faith in God carries me, but I am exhausted and heartbroken. My children need their father.” April 4 Federal Judge Paula Xinis of the US District Court in Maryland orders the Trump administration to return Abrego Garcia to the US by 11:59 p.m. on April 7, citing violations of court orders. The Trump administration appeals the ruling later that day, sending the case to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, according to a court filing. Vasquez Sura broke down several times during a news conference as she recounted the pain her family has faced since her husband’s deportation. “In a blink of an eye, our three children lost their father and I lost the love of my life,” she said. April 7 Before the Fourth Circuit issued its ruling on the government’s request for an administrative stay or a stay pending appeal, the Justice Department filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court, according to court documents. The government cited the “extraordinary circumstance” of the pending Fourth Circuit decision and requested, at a minimum, an immediate administrative stay to allow the Supreme Court time to consider the issues before the district court’s 11:59 p.m. deadline. Chief Justice John Roberts granted a temporary “administrative stay,” pausing the lower court’s deadline to return Abrego Garcia while the Supreme Court considers the case.
