A U.S. Supreme Court Order to Facilitate the Return of the Salvadoran Prisoner Kilmar Abrego Garcia: Correction to Murphy’s Order

A string of federal court findings against the recent deportations of Trump administration employees is added to by Murphy’s order. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who had lived in Maryland for about 14 years working and raising his family, was deported to third country after an error was made.

The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. from a notorious Salvadoran prison, rejecting the White House’s claim that it couldn’t retrieve him after mistakenly deporting him. The White House and El Salvadoran president have both said they do not have the power to bring him back. The Trump administration has tried to invoke the state secrets privilege, arguing that releasing details in open court — or even to the judge in private — about returning Abrego Garcia to the United States would jeopardize national security.

In Mr. Abrego Garcia’s case, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s order for the government to “facilitate” his return but stopped short of endorsing the judge’s call to “effectuate” it. The government said it doesn’t have the authority to bring Mr. Abregos back because El Salvadoran has custody of him. Mr. Trump himself has said he “could” arrange his release with a phone call.

“The Court notes that ‘facilitate’ in this context should carry less baggage than in several other notable cases,” he wrote. “O.C.G. is not held by any foreign government. Defendants have declined to make any argument that facilitating his return would be costly, burdensome, or otherwise impede the government’s objectives.”

The man, who is gay, was protected from being returned to his home country under a U.S. immigration judge’s order at the time. The removal that the U.S. put him on was likely lacking in due process, as found by the District Judge Brian Murphy.

“No one has ever suggested that O.C.G. poses any sort of security threat,” Murphy wrote. “In general, this case presents no special facts or legal circumstances, only the banal horror of a man being wrongfully loaded onto a bus and sent back to a country where he was allegedly just raped and kidnapped.”

Murphy gave a nod to the issue of “facilitate” in that case and others and said it’s not complicated to return O.C.G. to the U.S.