Supreme Court puts hold on order that deported Maryland man must be returned to US

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has temporarily placed on hold a judge’s order that the Trump administration must bring back to the United States a Maryland father it had mistakenly deported to El Salvador.

The decision on Monday came hours after government attorneys asked the Supreme Court to block an earlier ruling that gave the administration until the end of the day to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States.

Roberts' decision will give the court more time to review the case. He ordered lawyers in the case to respond by 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Federal immigration agents arrested Abrego Garcia, 29, on March 12 after pulling him over in an Ikea parking lot near his home in Beltsville, Maryland, about half an hour outside of Washington. Officials contend he is a member of the MS-13 criminal gang, although they have presented no evidence to back up that claim.

Three days after his arrest, Abrego Garcia was expelled from the United States even though he had a protective order barring his removal from the United States and sent to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT, which has been criticized for its harsh and dangerous conditions, as well as its rough treatment of prisoners.

The Trump administration admitted in court documents that his deportation was a mistake, which it blamed it on an “administrative error.” But the Justice Department says it has no authority to return him to the United States because he is in a foreign country.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland ruled from the bench that the government acted illegally in expelling Abrego Garcia and gave it until the end of Monday to bring him back. In a written order issued two days later, Xinis noted that Abrego Garcia was not being held for any crime in the United States or El Salvador.

“They had no legal authority to arrest him, no justification to detain him, and no grounds to send him to El Salvador – let alone deliver him into one of the most dangerous prisons in the Western hemisphere,” the judge said.

Xinis’ decision was considered a blow to President Donald Trump’s campaign to step up immigration enforcement, which has been a top priority for his administration.

Abrego Garcia was among the hundreds of alleged members of criminal gangs MS-13 and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua the government expelled from the United States and sent to El Salvador.

Abrego Garcia’s case was different, though, because of an earlier court order that protected him from being expelled from the United States.

A federal immigration judge issued that order after Abrego Garcia was arrested in 2019 outside a Home Depot in Hyattsville, Maryland. Government lawyers argued that a confidential informant had claimed he was a member of MS-13. Abrego Garcia, who is from El Salvador, contended he was not a gang member and that his parents had sent him to the United States when he was a teen because he was under pressure to join a rival gang of MS-13.

The immigration judge issued an order barring his deportation.

After his arrest in March, his family sued the government to return him to the United States.

Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, the attorney for the family, noted in a statement that Roberts' pause on Abrego Garcia's return to the United States is temporary.

"We have every confidence that the Supreme Court will resolve this matter as quickly as possible," Sandoval-Moshenberg said.