Or is he going too far? President Trump is playing chicken with both a federal court and the U.S. Supreme Court over an “administrative error” mistakenly deporting a man here illegally since 2011 to a mega-prison in El Salvador.
Trump has said he can’t get the man back. The president of El Salvador, during a White House visit, said he won’t send him back.
At the heart of this case is whether Trump is wrong to defy the courts when they are simply enforcing immigration law.
The Trump team argues that the Supreme Court has decided that federal courts cannot usurp the foreign policy powers of the president. His critics say he can’t violate immigration law to do it.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national arrested in Baltimore, with alleged ties to the MS-13 criminal gang, is one of dozens of alleged gang member illegal migrants placed by the U.S. on military planes last month and flown to El Salvador.
His family and lawyer deny he has any gang ties, and claim he fled El Salvador as a teenager in fear of those gangs. (RELATED: See Who Stephen Miller Blames For Deportation Controversy)
He was deported on March 15, despite a 2019 legal immigration order shielding him from removal on the grounds that he might be at risk of gang persecution in El Salvador. His case has become one of several raising alarms among Democrats and legal experts, who worry the Trump administration is willing to defy the authority of the judiciary.
“Wrongful deportations happen from time to time. And when the government realizes that they’ve done that, they facilitate the return,” Abrego Garcia’s attorney told reporters after a Friday hearing on his case.
A Maryland judge, Paula Xinis, is demanding that the Trump administration return Abrego Garcia who Trump officials admit was deported to El Salvador by mistake. She has ordered the U.S. government to “facilitate and effectuate” the man’s release from prison and return to the U.S.
Administration officials, meanwhile, have accused the courts of overstepping their bounds and obstructing the executive branch’s ability to manage foreign affairs.
Kilmar was sent to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT (Terrorism Confinement Centre), along with hundreds of Venezuelan migrants deported under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) — a 1798 law previously invoked only during wartime.
Multiple judges have since halted further deportations under that statute, but the Supreme Court recently upheld Trump’s use of that Act.
In a 9-0 ruling, the justices also declined to block Judge Xinis’s order to “facilitate” bringing back Ábrego García, upholding Xinis’s requirement, but they also said she may have exceeded her authority, and she may not be able to “effectuate” the man’s return. (RELATED: UK Supreme Court Issues Landmark Ruling On Legal Definition Of ‘Woman’)
“The district court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the executive branch in the conduct of foreign affairs,” the Supreme Court order said.
Separately, on April 15, Judge Xinis gave the Trump administration two weeks to present evidence of its efforts to repatriate Abrego, warning that “there will be no tolerance for gamesmanship.”
A similar dynamic played out in another case, where the Trump administration was accused of violating a judge’s oral order by flying more than 100 Venezuelan men to CECOT amid a lawsuit seeking to challenge the authority.
There too, the Supreme Court handed the Trump administration only a partial win in lifting U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s order blocking the president’s invocation of the AEA to swiftly deport migrants.
Meanwhile, Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax on Sunday: “They [Supreme Court] have been supportive generally of the power of the executive to decide who stays in the country, but what they’ve said also is if you’re going to deport people, you have to do it the right way.”
This means, he explained, deportations must be done with due process, and if there is a mistake made, then the administration must use their best efforts to get that person back.
But, what those “best efforts” are exactly, is still up for debate.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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So, Trump can’t defy immigration law, but where were these judges when Obama and Biden did so?
Already settled law by the Supreme Court. The real question should be can the judge avoid a contempt of court decree after completely ignoring what they told him. There are other alternatives that are left to Congress to accomplish. One is being pursued for the good behavior clause where an individual can be removed for less than good behavior. Contempt of the Supreme Court ruling is not good behavior. Disagreement is one thing, but completely ignoring the ruling and working against it is another.
It was a previously fired Trump admin employee who stated that Garcia was deported by mistake. The Trump admin officially denies that it was a mistake and has proof that he is a MS-13 member via prior verification by a court. You need to tell the whole story rather than only the parts that support your liberal agenda.
Could not the judge in this case be held in contempt, himself, for “Contempt of Presidential Authority”?
It is the far left and their criminal judiciary that have gone too far!
That district judge’ is the one showing contempt by trying to over-rule the President. This corrupt judge’ IS WRONG and should receive the consequences of his corruption. I hope Trump manages to bust his ass !!! He is financially compromised.
Anyone who is here illegally is a criminal eligible for deportation.
This guy is a known MS13 leader and wife beater. He should have been executed to set an example.