The U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocked a lower court’s order on April 6 that required the Trump administration to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, to the United States.
The decision followed a request by government attorneys to halt the ruling, which had given the administration until the end of the day on Monday to bring the 29-year-old back to the U.S.
Abrego Garcia, originally from El Salvador, was deported after being arrested by federal immigration agents on March 12 in Beltsville, MD. Hours after Roberts’ decision, the court set a deadline for responses from lawyers involved in the case by 5 p.m. Tuesday, allowing more time for review.
Abrego Garcia was detained after being pulled over in an Ikea parking lot, with officials claiming he was a member of the MS-13 criminal gang. However, no evidence has been presented to support that assertion. Three days after his arrest, he was expelled from the U.S. and sent to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), which has faced criticism for its harsh and dangerous conditions. This deportation occurred despite an existing court order that protected Abrego Garcia from removal.
The Trump administration admitted in court filings that Abrego Garcia’s deportation was a mistake, attributing it to an “administrative error.” Despite this, the Justice Department argued that it had no authority to return him to the U.S. from a foreign country.
On April 4, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ruled that the government had acted illegally in expelling Abrego Garcia. In her ruling, Judge Xinis ordered that the government must return him by the end of the day on Monday. In a follow-up order, she emphasized that Abrego Garcia was not being held for any crime either in the U.S. or in El Salvador, and criticized the government’s actions, stating there was no legal justification for his deportation to one of the world’s most dangerous prisons.
Abrego Garcia’s deportation represented a blow to President Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement agenda, which has prioritized expelling alleged gang members from the U.S. While hundreds of MS-13 members have been deported to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia’s case was distinct due to the previous court order barring his removal.
The case traces back to 2019, when Abrego Garcia was arrested outside a Home Depot in Hyattsville, MD. At that time, government attorneys claimed he was associated with MS-13 based on an informant’s testimony. Abrego Garcia denied the allegations, asserting that his parents had sent him to the U.S. as a teenager to escape pressure from MS-13 to join a rival gang. A federal immigration judge issued an order at that time preventing his deportation.
After his March arrest, Abrego Garcia’s family filed a lawsuit demanding his return. Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, the family’s attorney, expressed confidence that the Supreme Court would resolve the issue swiftly, despite Roberts’ temporary hold.
“We have every confidence that the Supreme Court will resolve this matter as quickly as possible,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said in a statement.