Supreme Court delays midnight deadline for Trump administration to fix mistaken deportation of Maryland man
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday issued a temporary administrative stay -- putting off a Monday midnight deadline for the government to return a mistakenly deported Maryland man to the U.S. -- giving the court more time to consider the arguments presented by both sides.
The Trump administration had asked the Supreme Court for emergency intervention in the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who the government -- by its own admission -- removed to El Salvador by mistake.
Roberts did not explain the decision. Administrative stays are not rulings on the merits in any way and do not indicate one way or the other how the court might eventually rule.
The Supreme Court requested a response to Trump's request from Garcia's attorneys by 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
In the filing earlier Monday, Trump administration Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that a federal court cannot order a president to engage in foreign diplomacy, which he says is implicitly involved in any potential return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who the Trump administration alleges is a gang member.
"The Constitution charges the President, not federal district courts, with the conduct of foreign diplomacy and protecting the Nation against foreign terrorists, including by effectuating their removal," Sauer writes. "And this order sets the United States up for failure. The United States cannot guarantee success in sensitive international negotiations in advance, least of all when a court imposes an absurdly compressed, mandatory deadline that vastly complicates the give-and-take of foreign-relations negotiations."
Abrego Garcia, despite having protected legal status, was sent to the notorious CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador following what the government said was an "administrative error."
In March, Abrego Garcia, whose wife is a U.S. citizen and who has 5-year-old child, was stopped by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who "informed him that his immigration status had changed," according to his attorneys. He was detained and then transferred to a detention center in Texas before being sent to El Salvador.
Abrego Garcia entered the United States in 2011 when he was 16 to escape gang violence in El Salvador, according to his lawyers. Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, the attorney representing Abrego Garcia, said last week his client is not a member of MS-13, as the government has alleged, but said that's an issue for an immigration judge to address.
The appeal to the Supreme Court came Monday morning, just before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit reaffirmed Friday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis that Abrego Garcia must be returned by Monday at 11:59 p.m. ET.
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Trump administration's emergency motion to block the order to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S.
In a unanimous decision, the panel of three judges agreed Xinis' order requiring the government "to facilitate and effectuate the return of [Abrego Garcia] by the United States by no later than 11:59 pm on Monday, April 7, 2025," should not be stayed.
"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," the judges said. "The Government's contention otherwise, and its argument that the federal courts are powerless to intervene, are unconscionable."
U.S. Circuit Judge Jamie Wilkinson, who was appointed by Ronald Reagan, said in his opinion that "there is no question that the government screwed up here."
"If it is truly a mistake, one would also expect the government to do what it can to rectify it," Wilkinson said. "Most of us attempt to undo, to the extent that we can, the mistakes that we have made. But, to the best of my knowledge, the government has not made the attempt here."
In a concurring opinion, U.S. Circuit Judge Robert King and U.S. Circuit Judge Stephanie Thacker said if the government wanted to prove that the Maryland man who was sent to El Salvador was "a prominent" member of MS-13, they had "ample opportunity to do so," but has not "even bothered to try."
"The Government has made no effort to demonstrate that Abrego Garcia is, in fact, a member of any gang," said King and Thacker.
