The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to block a court order to return an alleged MS-13 gang member back to the United States.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) requested the nation’s highest court to lift an order demanding that the Trump administration bring back Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an alleged MS-13 gangbanger who was deported back to his home country of El Salvador in March, according to an emergency appeal filed Monday. The court order demands that Garcia be returned to the U.S. by no later than 11:59 p.m. on Monday, a deadline the administration called “unprecedented.”
“The United States cannot guarantee success in sensitive international negotiations in advance, least of all when a court imposes an absurdly compressed, mandatory deadline that vastly complicates the give-and-take of foreign-relations negotiations,” the DOJ wrote in its appeal to the Supreme Court.
“The United States does not control the sovereign nation of El Salvador, nor can it compel El Salvador to follow a federal judge’s bidding,” the DOJ continued, arguing that the order “set the United States up for failure.”
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, appointed to the bench by the Obama administration, ordered the Trump White House Friday to quickly effectuate the Garcia’s return back to the U.S., calling his deportation “an illegal act.” The federal appeals court in Richmond Virginia, previously denied the Trump administration’s request to block Xinis’ order.
While the Trump administration has acknowledged that Garcia’s deportation was the result of a clerical error, they maintain that he was a top-ranking member of MS-13 and should be kept in detention.
“Complicating the negotiations further, the alien is no ordinary individual, but rather a member of a designated foreign terrorist organization, MS-13, that the government has determined engages in ‘terrorist activity’ or ‘terrorism’ — or ‘retains the capability and intent to engage in terrorist activity or terrorism’ — that ‘threatens the security of United States nationals or the national security of theUnited States,’” the DOJ wrote in its appeal Monday.
Garcia unlawfully entered the U.S. in 2011 and eventually made his way to the Maryland area, according to court documents. He married Jennifer Vasquez Sura, an American citizen, and has one child.
Accusations that he was associated with MS-13 began when he was arrested in 2019 by the Prince George’s County Police Department in Maryland. Documentation compiled by the Prince George’s County Police Department ostensibly verified his gang affiliation, with a confidential informant advising that he was a documented member of MS-13, providing his alleged gang name and his rank within the gang.
Despite these allegations, a judge in October 2019 granted Garcia a protected status known as “withholding of removal” after determining that he would likely be persecuted by gangs if deported back to El Salvador, according to court documents. This status, similar to asylum, gave him temporary protection from repatriation back to his home country and allowed him to be released from law enforcement custody.
Garcia remained free in Maryland until Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents pulled Garcia over on March 12, according to court documents. ICE informed him that his status had changed, took him into custody, and after transferring him to several different detention centers, deported him to El Salvador. He is currently being detained at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a maximum security mega-prison that was built to hold documented MS-13 gangbangers and other members of notorious crime syndicates.
The Trump administration acknowledged in a court filing that it was aware of Garcia’s removal protection and blamed his deportation on an “administrative error.” Regardless, the White House is making no apology for his deportation, standing by investigative assessments that he is an MS-13 gang member.
“[Garcia is] actually a member of MS-13 and was involved in human trafficking … It is a gang that rapes, maims, and kills Americans for sport. They should not be on U.S. soil,” Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Friday.
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