The U.S. Supreme Court has stopped a midnight deadline that would have forced the Trump administration to bring back a Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador. Chief Justice John Roberts agreed on Monday to pause the order, giving the government more time.
The man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was wrongly sent to a dangerous prison in El Salvador last month. A U.S. judge had already ruled in 2019 that he should not be deported there because he might face violence from local gangs. Despite that, immigration officers still sent him back.
Government Says It Cannot Bring Him Back
The Justice Department admitted in court that Abrego Garcia should not have been deported. But they also said they can’t bring him back now because he’s no longer in U.S. custody and is being held by another country.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis had ordered the government to bring him back by midnight on Monday. She said the deportation seemed “wholly lawless” and based on weak, unproven claims that Garcia was once part of the MS-13 gang—a claim his lawyers say is completely false.
Solicitor General Calls the Judge’s Order Unlawful
The government’s top lawyer, Solicitor General D. John Sauer, called Judge Xinis’s order “patently unlawful.” He said no judge in the U.S. has the power to order the release of someone from a foreign prison.
He also argued that this was just one of many court decisions trying to slow down President Trump’s immigration actions. The administration is currently asking the Supreme Court to allow the deportation of other Venezuelan migrants accused of gang ties, also to the same prison in El Salvador, under an old law from the 1700s.
Appeals Court Says Deportation Was a Mistake
Earlier, a federal appeals court in Virginia refused to stop Judge Xinis’s order. In that ruling, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson said clearly, “There is no question that the government screwed up here.” The court noted that Garcia was deported by mistake.
The White House said the deportation was due to an “administrative error.” But at the same time, it called Garcia a member of the dangerous MS-13 gang. However, his lawyers say there is no proof of that at all.
Garcia Was Living a Normal Life in the U.S.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is 29 years old and originally from El Salvador. He has never been charged or convicted of any crime in the U.S. He had legal permission to live and work in the country. In fact, he was training as a sheet metal worker and working towards getting a license.
He was also married to a U.S. citizen and had a job and a normal life before he was detained and deported.
Government Lawyer Removed from the Case
During a court hearing, a government lawyer admitted that Garcia should not have been deported. After this statement, Attorney General Pam Bondi removed the lawyer, Erez Reuveni, from the case and placed him on leave.
This move has raised more questions about how the case was handled and whether officials are taking responsibility for what happened.
