Trump administration officials have petitioned the Supreme Court to stop a court-ordered return of a deported Salvadoran man labeled an MS-13 gang member.
The Trump administration has filed an emergency application with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to block a federal judge’s order requiring the government to bring back an illegal immigrant who was deported to El Salvador.
In a filing on April 7, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) acknowledged that an “administrative error” led to the deportation of Kilmar Abrego-Garcia to El Salvador but stated that it opposes a lower court order directing his return to the United States. The filing argues that such relief is beyond the court’s authority and would force the executive branch to engage in high-stakes diplomacy on an impossible timeline.
“While the United States concedes that removal to El Salvador was an administrative error, … that does not license district courts 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,” the filing states.
The district court’s April 4 order required DHS to “facilitate and effectuate” Abrego-Garcia’s return to the United States by 11:59 p.m. on April 7. That ruling was made after U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis found that the government had violated a 2019 immigration ruling that barred his removal to El Salvador due to credible threats from the rival Barrio 18 gang.
Abrego-Garcia, a Salvadoran national who entered the United States illegally in about 2011, was arrested in Maryland in 2019 and placed in immigration proceedings. That same year, an immigration judge ruled that although he was subject to removal, he could not be deported to El Salvador because of a high likelihood of persecution there.
Despite that ruling, Abrego-Garcia was arrested on March 12 by Homeland Security Investigations, a division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Officials cited what they described as his “prominent role” in the MS-13 gang, which the Trump administration had recently designated a foreign terrorist organization. He was placed on a deportation flight three days later, on March 15.
According to ICE official Robert Cerna II, Abrego-Garcia had not been on the original manifest for the flight but was listed as an alternate. As other individuals were removed from the flight, Abrego-Garcia’s name was moved up, and he was added to the final passenger list. The manifest, Cerna added, failed to indicate that Abrego-Garcia had legal protection from removal to El Salvador.
By Tom Ozimek
