A federal appeals court refused Monday to cancel the midnight deadline for President Trump to bring back an MS-13 gang suspect who was wrongly deported to El Salvador, with the judges blasting the administration for its handling of the case.
The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means Mr. Trump must bring back Kilmar Abrego-Garcia, a man the White House had admitted was deported because of a “clerical error” but insisted would never be brought back.
“There is no question that the government screwed up here,” said Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III.
Judge Stephanie Thacker, meanwhile, called the arrest and deportation “unconscionable.”
“The United States Government has no legal authority to snatch a person who is lawfully present in the United States off the street and remove him from the country without due process,” she wrote.
The Justice Department quickly rushed to the Supreme Court to ask the deadline be delayed and the order to bring Mr. Abrego-Garcia back be canceled.
Mr. Abrego-Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen, was in the country illegally and was ordered deported by an immigration judge in 2019. But the judge also found that he would face persecution if sent back to El Salvador, so it granted him what’s known as withholding of removal. That meant he could be deported to another country, but not to El Salvador.
He was deported anyway, on March 15, as part of three planeloads of people the government said were members of MS-13 or Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang. The administration has declared both gangs to be terrorist organizations.
Mr. Abrego-Garcia has denied being a member of MS-13.
But an immigration judge in 2019 found it likely he was a member based on a Prince George’s County Police Department report from a confidential source that identified him by his gang rank and gang nickname. He was also arrested by deportation authorities in 2019 in the company of known MS-13 figures, the immigration judge said.
She denied him bond at the time, saying he had missed several court appearances for traffic offenses and didn’t seem to show respect for court orders.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has also hinted at other offenses, though she gave no evidence.
Ms. Leavitt last week, while admitting the deportation error, said the administration would not bring back a man the government now deems a terrorist.
