Update
The Supreme Court temporarily blocked the order to bring a suspected MS-13 gangster back from El Salvador. Chief Justice Roberts handed down the order.
The government said Judge Paula Xinis, who ordered the administration to return the migrant, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, by Monday, had engaged in “district-court diplomacy.”
The chief justice, acting alone, issued an “administrative stay,” an interim measure meant to give the justices some breathing room while the full court considers the matter. He ordered the migrant’s lawyers to file their brief on Tuesday.
The order came within hours of the filing.
In the administration’s emergency application, D. John Sauer, the U.S. solicitor general, said Judge Xinis had exceeded her authority by engaging in “district-court diplomacy,” because it would require working with the government of El Salvador to secure his release.
“If this precedent stands,” he wrote, “other district courts could order the United States to successfully negotiate the return of other removed aliens anywhere in the world by close of business. Under that logic, district courts would effectively have extraterritorial jurisdiction over the United States’ diplomatic relations with the whole world.”
He said it did not matter that an immigration judge had previously prohibited Mr. Abrego Garcia’s deportation to El Salvador.
“While the United States concedes that removal to El Salvador was an administrative error,” Mr. Sauer wrote, “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.”
In a sharply worded order, two judges likened Mr. Abrego Garcia’s inadvertent deportation to an act of official kidnapping. They are both Obama-appointed judges.
Democrats want to die on this hill — bringing back illegal alien gangsters.
.@StephenM on SCOTUS ruling that President Trump can enforce the Illegal Alien Enemies Act: “This was a huge, I mean monumental victory for President Trump… A total embarrassment for Judge Boasberg… Those monsters can now be hunted down and expelled from this country with… pic.twitter.com/SxhsGtDAU3
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 8, 2025
Original Story
President Donald Trump appealed the case of the alleged MS-13 gang member Abrego Garcia. Initially, Judge Zinis ordered Mr. Garcia’s return from an El Salvador prison. Judge Thacker received the appeal and again ruled against President Trump.
President Trump has appealed to the Supreme Court.
The President asked the Supreme Court to block a court order requiring the administration to return Mr. Garcia. In the emergency appeal, the Justice Department argued that Judge Xinis overstepped her authority when she ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to the United States.
The administration has conceded that Kilmar Abrego Garcia should not have been sent to El Salvador because an immigration judge in 2019 found that he’d likely face persecution by local gangs.
The administration argues that he is no longer in US custody and that the government cannot get him back. According to the original order, the government only has until midnight Tuesday to bring him back.
During the original hearing, a Justice Department lawyer agreed that Abrego Garcia should not have been deported. Attorney Pam Bondi removed the lawyer, Erez Reuveni, from the case and placed Reuveni on a month-long leave.
Judge Stephanie Thacker, meanwhile, called the arrest and deportation “unconscionable.”
“The United States Government has no legal authority to snatch a person who is lawfully present in the United States off the street and remove him from the country without due process,” she wrote.
However, the order doesn’t require that. He is here illegally. He was eligible for deportation, just not to El Salvador.
Judges Xinis and Thacker are Obama-appointed judges.
Thacker was part of a three-judge panel. Reagan-appointed Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III disagreed with Thacker and the other judge.
“There is no question that the government screwed up here,” Judge Wilkinson wrote. But he drew a distinction.
“It is fair to read the district court’s order as one requiring that the government facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release, rather than demand it,” wrote Judge Wilkinson, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan. “The former seems within the trial court’s lawful powers in this circumstance; the latter would be an intrusion on core executive powers that goes too far.”
Podcaster @jonfavs (and @grok, apparently) believe there is no evidence that Abrego-Garcia is a member of MS-13.
WRONG. Both the original immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals found there was sufficient evidence of such to render him a danger to the public. pic.twitter.com/ggyTw8k4o3
— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) April 1, 2025
Allegedly, Garcia was afraid that a rival gang, the 18th Street Gang, would kill him, but they’ve been crushed.
More information:
Kilmar Abrego Garcia (Maryland Father) was not “mistakenly deported.” The media is being HIGHLY deceptive when they say this. The “administrative error” made by the Trump administration was deporting him to El Salvador. Garcia WAS eligible for deportation. Just not to El Salvador… pic.twitter.com/1yHjC5gjdt
— TD Media Group (@TDMediaGroup) April 5, 2025
Update: We changed the title to reflect the update.
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