Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. gave a reprieve to President Trump on Monday, delaying a midnight deadline to bring back a deported Salvadoran gang suspect.
Chief Justice Roberts ordered more briefings in the case and put the deadline on hold until a further move from the Supreme Court.
His order blocks a decision by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who late last week blasted the Trump administration for having deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador despite a standing directive that he not be sent back to that country.
“We welcome this stay from the Supreme Court as we continue to fight this case and protect the executive branch from judicial overreach,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said.
The White House has admitted that the removal of the Maryland resident was an “error” but has insisted it wouldn’t bring him back, arguing he is a dangerous member of MS-13 and is a foreign citizen now in the custody of his own country.
Lower-court judges have been withering in their judgment of the administration.
“There is no question that the government screwed up here,” said Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, who was part of a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that earlier in the day upheld Judge Xinis’ deadline.
The case has become a flash point between the courts and Mr. Trump, who claims expansive presidential powers to carry out deportations in accordance with his campaign promises.
Judge Xinis ruled that Mr. Abrego Garcia’s March 12 arrest was illegal because there was no valid warrant or order to carry it out. She called the arrest “unconstitutional” and ruled that his deportation three days later was “unlawful” because of the standing directive that he not be sent to El Salvador.
The 4th Circuit agreed with those findings Monday morning.
“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,” wrote Judge Stephanie Thacker, who called the arrest and deportation “unconscionable.”
The Justice Department rushed to the Supreme Court to ask for a delay in the deadline, and Judge Xinis’ ruling was expunged.
Mr. Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen, was in the country illegally and was ordered deported by an immigration judge in 2019. However, the judge also found that he would face persecution if sent back to El Salvador, so it granted him what is known as withholding of removal.
That meant he could be deported to another country but not El Salvador.
On March 15, despite that ruling, he was put on one 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.
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.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has hinted at other offenses, though she provided no details.
Speaking to reporters last week, she ruled out returning Mr. Abrego Garcia.
The administration’s case is complicated, though, by its admission that Mr. Abrego Garcia shouldn’t have been sent to El Salvador.
Instead, the administration argues it will not and cannot be ordered to bring back a terrorist figure.
The Justice Department says Mr. Abrego Garcia is now in the custody of El Salvador, his home country, and in a terrorist prison.
Solicitor General John Sauer said that although the deportation was wrong, “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.”
He said the ruling was part of a tsunami of court orders that have stretched judges’ powers to derail Mr. Trump’s policies.
