Supreme Court Delays Return Of MD Man Deported To El Salvador

Updated at 5:08 p.m.

MARYLAND — The Trump administration won a delay Monday in returning a Maryland man to the United States after it asked the Supreme Court to block a lower court ruling to bring back the man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador last month due to an "administrative error," according to The New York Times.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Monday temporarily blocked a trial judge’s order in the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a resident of Beltsville and a citizen of El Salvador. Abrego Garcia was among hundreds of alleged gang members expelled from the United States on March 15 after President Donald Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.

The chief justice issued paused the proceedings while the full court considers the Abrego Garcia case, The New York Times reported. Roberts' order came just hours after the administration asked the court to block a ruling instructing the government to return the migrant by 11:59 p.m. on Monday.

Roberts gave Abrego García’s attorneys until Tuesday to respond to the government’s motion, but they submitted it shortly after the administrative stay was announced.

“This is just a temporary administrative stay,” Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, an attorney for Abrego García, said in a statement to The Washington Post. “We have every confidence that the Supreme Court will resolve this matter as quickly as humanly possible.”

Federal Judge Paula Xinis said Friday said the administration committed a “grievous error” that “shocks the conscience” by sending Abrego Garcia to a notorious prison. She ordered the government to return him to the United States by 11:59 p.m. on Monday.

D. John Sauer, the U.S. solicitor general, argued on behalf of the Trump administration that Judge Xinis had exceeded her authority by engaging in “district-court diplomacy,” because it would require working with the government of El Salvador to secure his release, the Times said.

“If this precedent stands,” Sauer wrote, “other district courts could order the United States to successfully negotiate the return of other removed aliens anywhere in the world by close of business. Under that logic, district courts would effectively have extraterritorial jurisdiction over the United States’ diplomatic relations with the whole world.”

He said it did not matter that an immigration judge had previously prohibited Abrego Garcia’s deportation to El Salvador.

• Related: Judge Orders U.S. To Return MD Man Mistakenly Deported To El Salvador

“While the United States concedes that removal to El Salvador was an administrative error,” Sauer wrote, “that does not license district courts to seize control over foreign relations, treat the executive branch as a subordinate diplomat and demand that the United States let a member of a foreign terrorist organization into America tonight.”

Abrego García has been detained at a prison in El Salvador despite a court order forbidding his deportation because he had fled death threats from gang members there, The Washington Post said.

Xinis disputed the Trump team's arguments on Sunday, writing that the federal government has the authority to return Abrego García and officials have offered “no evidence” to prove claims he is a gang member.

The judge noted that the Trump administration is paying the Salvadoran government $6 million to detain Abrego García and other deportees. An agreement between the two countries states that U.S. officials will decide what happens to the detainees in the future.

Despite his deportation, Abrego Garcia had been granted a withholding of removal in 2019, meaning he could not be removed from the United States.

• RELATED: MD Man Deported To El Salvador Due To 'Administrative Error'

Before she issued her ruling, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis described Abrego Garcia's deportation as “an illegal act” and pressed a Justice Department attorney for answers, leading to a tense courtroom exchange.

Justice Department attorney Erez Reuveni conceded to Xinis that Abrego Garcia should not have been removed from the U.S. and shouldn’t have been sent to El Salvador. He couldn’t tell the judge what authority Abrego Garcia was arrested upon in Maryland.

Attorney General Pam Bondi later removed Reuveni, from the case and placed him on leave.

The judge also questioned why the U.S. couldn’t get him back. Reuveni said that was the first question he asked when he was assigned to the case.

“I have not received today an answer that I find satisfactory,” he said Friday.

Abrego Garcia's wife, Jennifer Stefania Vasquez Sura, and his 5-year-old child, both of whom are U.S. citizens, filed a lawsuit on March 24 calling for his return.

According to the lawsuit, Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador when he was 16 years old to escape gang violence. He was arrested in March 2019 while soliciting work outside a Home Depot, and he was later ordered deported after a confidential informant told police he was a member of the MS-13 gang.

Abrego Garcia appealed the claim and was eventually granted “withholding from removal” status in October 2019 by an immigration judge, according to court documents.

On March 12, Abrego Garcia was pulled over by ICE officers after picking up his son from daycare. The officer told Abrego Garcia that his "status had changed" before placing him in handcuffs and detaining him, according to court documents. The officer also said Abrego Garcia's wife had 10 minutes to get their son or else he would be handed over to Child Protective Services, the lawsuit states.

Three days later, Abrego Garcia was taken to the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador, according to court documents, which activists say is rife with abuses and where inmates are packed into cells and never allowed outside.

In a sworn statement filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland, Robert Cerna, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s acting field office director for enforcement and removal operations, called Abrego Garcia's removal "an error."

"Through administrative error, Abrego Garcia was removed from the United States to El Salvador," Cerna wrote. "This was an oversight, and the removal was carried out in good faith based on the existence of a final order of removal and Abrego Garcia’s purported membership in MS-13."

In a court filing released last week, Trump administration officials waved off calls to return Abrego Garcia to the country, claiming that U.S. courts did not have jurisdiction to order it. Vice President JD Vance also defended the deportation, calling Abrego Garcia a "convicted MS-13 gang member."

A Maryland court record search by Patch did not find any criminal cases linked to Abrego Garcia’s name.

"Abrego Garcia is not a member of or has no affiliation with Tren de Aragua, MS-13, or any other criminal or street gang," his attorneys wrote in his family's lawsuit. "Although he has been accused of general 'gang affiliation,' the U.S. government has never produced an iota of evidence to support this unfounded accusation."

Friday's ruling came shortly after Abrego Garcia's wife joined dozens of supporters at a rally to urge her husband's immediate return.

Vasquez Sura hasn't spoken to Abrego Garcia since he was flown to El Salvador and imprisoned. She urged her supporters to keep fighting for her husband “and all the Kilmars out there whose stories are still waiting to be heard.”

“To all the wives, mothers, children who also face this cruel separation, I stand with you in this bond of pain,” she said during the rally at a community center in Hyattsville. “It’s a journey that no one ever should ever have to suffer, a nightmare that feels endless."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.