Chief Justice John Roberts has temporarily paused a court-ordered deadline that required the Trump administration to bring back a man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador. This decision gives the Supreme Court time to consider the administration’s emergency request to overturn the lower court’s order.
The temporary stay does not reflect a final ruling on the case or indicate how the court might ultimately decide. Instead, it simply halts the immediate requirement to return the individual, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, until further review.
The Trump administration admitted that an “administrative error” led to the wrongful deportation of Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national living in Maryland. An immigration judge had ruled back in 2019 that he should not be deported due to the risk of violence in El Salvador. However, last month he was deported along with hundreds of others and sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador, despite the earlier court protection.
The administration later claimed Abrego Garcia had ties to the MS-13 gang, citing information from a confidential source. His family has strongly denied those allegations, saying he has no gang involvement.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who presides in Maryland, ordered the government to return Abrego Garcia to the United States by Monday night. But the Justice Department responded that complying would be impossible, arguing that once he was turned over to Salvadoran authorities, U.S. officials no longer had the power to retrieve him.
Government lawyers described the judge’s ruling as unworkable and warned that it “sets the United States up for failure,” claiming they could not reverse the deportation now that foreign authorities are in control of his custody. The case remains under review as legal proceedings continue.