Supreme Court Orders Trump to Return Man Sent to El Salvador Mega-Prison ‘By Mistake’

The Trump administration faces another test in its legal saga over deportations after the Supreme Court ordered it to bring about the return a Maryland man who the government said it mistakenly sent to an infamous El Salvadoran prison.

The high court, in an unsigned opinion, told the administration Thursday to ‘facilitate’ the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, a Maryland resident who was among more than 200 people sent by plane to El Salvador. Many were allegedly members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

A federal judge then told the government to ‘take all available steps to facilitate the return’ of Abrego Garcia.

He got arrested outside a Home Depot in 2019 and was accused of being a member of the violent gang MS-13, but was never charged with a crime. He had been under an order from an immigration judge not to be deported due to facing likely persecution by gangs in his home country.

‘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,” the court said of a lower court order, while saying it requires ‘clarification’ and noted ‘deference’ to the executive when it comes to foreign affairs.

That puts the ball in the Trump administration’s court.

Abrego Garcia’s case has become a high-profile feature of the sudden deportations, with multiple lawyers claiming their clients were not gang members who didn’t get the chance to raise their claims through a hearing or other form of due process.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered his return – but that is something the White House has previously said it would not due.

‘The error that you are referring to was a clerical error. It was an administrative error,’ White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said April 1. ‘The administration maintains the position that this individual who was deported to El Salvador and will not be returning to our country was a member of the brutal and vicious MS-13 gang,’ Leavitt added.

She claimed he was a ‘convicted’ gang member, although there isn’t evidence of a conviction. ”We also have credible intelligence proving that this individual was involved in human trafficking … This individual was a member – actually a leader – of the brutal MS-13 gang, which this president has designated as a foreign terrorist organization,’ she said.

His wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, a U.S. citizen who he married inside a detention center, has made emphatic appeals for his return.

The two were raising three children at the time Abrega was deported. Among them is a five-year-old son who is autistic and nonverbal, according to a court filing.

“I am anxiously waiting for Kilmar to be here in my arms, and in our home putting our children to bed, knowing this nightmare is almost at its end,’ she said.

Last week the Justice Department placed on leave the lawyer who represented the government in the case for not ”zealously advocating’ for its position, after he admitted the deportation was a mistake.

The U.S. is paying $6 million to El Salvador to detain Venezuelan deportees in the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), which holds up to 40,000 prisoners. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele is set to visit the White House Monday.

‘To this day, the Government has cited no basis in law for Abrego Garcia’s warrantless arrest, his removal to El Salvador, or his confinement in a Salvadoran prison,’ said Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by two others on the court’s liberal minority.

‘Instead of hastening to correct its egregious error, the Government dismissed it as an “oversight,”‘ she wrote.