Washington (AP) – The Supreme Court The Trump administration is working on Thursday to bring back a man from Maryland who was wrongly expelled to prison in El Salvador, rejecting the administration’s emergency call.
The court acted in the case Kilmar Abrego GarciaA Salvadoral citizen who had an order from the immigration court preventing his expulsion to his country of origin to fear that he will be able to face the persecution of local gangs.
US District Judge Paula Xinis had ordered that Garcia, now detained in a notorious Salvadoran prison, returned to the United States at midnight on Monday.
“The ordinance correctly obliges the government to” facilitate “the release of Abrego Garcia de la Garde in Salvador and to ensure that his case is treated as it was would not have been sent wrongly to El Salvador,” the court said in an unsigned order without dissenting.
He comes after a series of decisions on the court’s emergency file where the conservative majority took place at least partially on the side of Trump in the midst of a wave of lower judicial orders slowing down the president’s radical agenda.
In the case of Thursday, the chief judge John Roberts had already pushed the deadline for Xinis. The judges also said that his order must now be clarified to ensure that it does not interfere in the power of executive branches on foreign affairs, because Abrego Garcia is owned abroad. The court said that the Trump administration should also be ready to share the necessary measures to try to recover it – and what could do.
The administration says that Greo Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang, although he has never been charged or found guilty of a crime. His lawyers said there was no evidence that he was in MS-13.
The administration conceded that it had made a mistake by sending it to Salvador, but argued that he could not do anything about it.
Liberal judges of the Court said that the administration should have hurried to correct “its glaring error” and was “clearly wrong” to suggest that it could not bring it home.
“The government’s argument also implies that he could expel and incarcerate any person, including American citizens, without legal consequences, as long as he does before a court can intervene,” wrote Sonia Sotomayor, joined by his two colleagues.
Abrego Garcia’s wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura, said that the ordeal was an “emotional mountains” for their family and the whole community.
“I look forward to Kilmar to be here in my arms, and in our house putting our children in bed, knowing that this nightmare is almost at its end. I will continue to fight until my husband is at home, “she said.
One of his lawyers, Simon Sandoval-Moshenburg, said: “Tonight, the rule of law has prevailed”, and he encouraged the government to “stop wasting and moving”.
In the district court, Xinis wrote that the decision to arrest Abrego Garcia and send it to Salvador seems to be “entirely without law”. There is little or no evidence in support of a “vague, non -corroborated” allegation according to which Abrego Garcia was once in the gang on rue MS-13, Xinis wrote.
The 29 -year -old was detained by immigration agents and expelled last month.
He had a license from the Department of Homeland Security to work legally in the United States and was an apprentice in a sheet pursuing a companion license, said his lawyer. His wife is an American citizen.
Tricia McLaughlin, Deputy Secretary of the DHS for Public Affairs, said Thursday that the order to clarify the judges of the lower court was a victory for the administration. “We are impatient to continue to advance our position in this case,” she said.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said that the court had “directly noted the deference of the executive power” in foreign affairs.
An immigration judge had previously prohibited the United States from deporting Abrego Garcia to El Salvador in 2019, noting that he was facing a probable persecution by local gangs.
A lawyer for the Ministry of Justice conceded during a court hearing that Garcia Garcia should not have been expelled. The Attorney General Pam Bondi then withdrew the lawyer, Erez Rebeni, from the case and placed it on leave.
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The writers of the Associated Press Lindsay Whitehurst, Rebecca Santana and Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.
