The US Supreme Court has granted a temporary pause to a lower court’s order that required the Trump administration to bring back a deported Salvadoran man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, according to Reuters.
Chief Justice John Roberts approved the request to temporarily halt the ruling, which had set a deadline of 11:59 pm on Monday for Mr. Garcia’s return.
Mr. Garcia was deported on March 15th, with the government initially attributing his removal to an “administrative error.” However, the government also claims he is a member of the MS-13 gang, an accusation his legal team denies.
In its appeal to the Supreme Court, the Trump administration argued that the district judge had exceeded her authority and that the US government could not compel El Salvador to comply with the order.
Solicitor General D John Sauer wrote, “The United States does not control the sovereign nation of El Salvador, nor can it compel El Salvador to follow a federal judge’s bidding.”
He further stated, “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.”
Mr. Garcia is currently detained in El Salvador’s maximum-security Terrorism Confinement Center, known as Cecot. His wife, US citizen Jennifer Vasquez Sura, has advocated for his release.
Mr. Garcia, 29, entered the US as a teenager and had previously been granted protection from deportation in 2019. His lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, described the deportation as “the equivalent of a forcible expulsion.”
Last week, Judge Paula Xinis ruled that Mr. Garcia was being held “without legal basis” and that the government had acted “without any lawful authority.”
Justice Department attorney Erez Reuveni, who had admitted that Mr. Garcia “should not have been removed,” was placed on administrative leave, according to US Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The Supreme Court intervened just hours before the return deadline, which officials had deemed “impossible.”
