Trump Admin Tells Judge It Doesn’t Have to Bring Back Man It Illegally Shipped to El Salvador

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-defies-supreme-court-deported-man-el-salvador-prison-1235316677/

42 comments

  2. So they didnt’ listen to what Trump said yesterday about respecting the Supreme Court order?

  4. >Days after the Supreme Court ordered Donald Trump to “facilitate” the return of a man his administration illegally shipped to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador — allegedly the result of an “administrative error” — Trump’s administration is saying it has no responsibility to actually bring him home. 

    >Trump, himself, said last week he would follow the high court’s order: “If the Supreme Court said bring somebody back, I would do that. I respect the Supreme Court,” he said. 

    >On Saturday, he appeared to walk back that pledge, claiming on Truth Social that the migrants his administration is paying El Salvador to hold in prison “are now in the sole custody” of the Central American nation, adding that their fate is in the hands of El Salvador President Nayib Bukele — who is visiting the White House on Monday. 

    >Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who fled gang violence in El Salvador to the U.S. in 2011, was previously granted a “protection from removal” order prohibiting the government from deporting him back to that country.

    >In a district court filing on Sunday, the Justice Department claimed that Abrego Garcia’s family has no right to ask the judge to demand the Trump administration secure his release in El Salvador and bring him back to the U.S. The DOJ argued that such a directive would be unconstitutional — and a misunderstanding of the Supreme Court’s order to “facilitate” his return. 

    >“Defendants understand ‘facilitate’ to mean what that term has long meant in the immigration context, namely actions allowing an alien to enter the United States,” lawyers for Trump’s Justice Department wrote in the filing. “Taking ‘all available steps to facilitate’ the return of Abrego Garcia is thus best read as taking all available steps to remove any domestic obstacles that would otherwise impede the alien’s ability to return here. Indeed, no other reading of ‘facilitate’ is tenable — or constitutional — here.”

    >The administration further rejected any demands that it share copies or details of its agreements with El Salvador to hold the migrants the U.S. sent there — claiming that this information is either “classified,” subject to attorney-client privilege, or subject to the State Secrets privilege.

    >The Associated Press reported last month that El Salvador had agreed, in a memo, to house migrants from the U.S. for one year “pending the United States’ decision on their long term disposition.” The memo has not been publicly released.

    >While the Supreme Court flatly noted that Abrego Garcia’s deportation to El Salvador was “illegal” based on “a withholding order forbidding his removal to El Salvador,” Trump’s Department of Homeland Security argued in a separate filing Sunday that this protective order is null-and-void because it claims Abrego Garcia is a member of a gang, MS-13, which Trump has designated as a terrorist organization. 

    >A DHS official wrote that “Abrego Garcia is no longer eligible for withholding of removal because of his membership in MS-13 which is now a designated foreign terrorist organization.”

    >The filings were submitted to District Judge Paula Xinis’ court in Maryland. The Supreme Court sent Abrego Garcia’s case back to her court on Thursday, writing that Xinis’ original order demanding his return “properly requires the government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”

    >Xinis has requested daily updates on what the Trump administration is doing to bring him back to the U.S. On Saturday, a State Department official told the court Abrego Garcia is “alive and secure” at the Central American country’s infamous Terrorism Confinement Center, the notorious mega-prison known as CECOT.

    >As Rolling Stone recently reported, El Salvador’s prison system is effectively “a judicial black hole” rife with “systematic torture.” 

    >The Trump administration has shipped hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to CECOT without due process. 

    >The administration has offered only specious claims that the deported men have ties to gangs — claims that were apparently based on their fully unrelated tattoos and apparel choices. The vast majority of migrants whom Trump sent to El Salvador have no criminal records or previous criminal charges, according to reporting by CBS News’ 60 Minutes. 

    >On Sunday, Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the administration just sent 10 more “criminals” to El Salvador.

  5. And when they deport legal US citizens, they will cite this as precedent. God, this is the darkest timeline.

  8. He’s already dead.. they can’t bring him back.. and it could have been any american…

  9. Has the admin explained why they would not want to? Genuine question.

  10. Oh, for the love of…

    This is fucked. I don’t even know what to say.

  11. Kilmar Garcia; this man has a name, he matters and if we don’t stand for him- soon we will share his fate

  13. Wait, he said dictator only on day one! Did the hamburglar lie?!??

  14. So is Attorney General Bondi going to arrest him when he’s held in contempt? Lol. Of course not. She was chosen because she will easily stoop to being a traitor to her country before she goes against Great Leader.

  15. The court’s next statement to Warden Noem should be: “Come to court on Monday morning, and pack an overnight bag just in case”

  16. The judge should charge the appropriate Justice Dept. officials with civil contempt of court (very difficult to appeal), and throw them in jail. Repeat as necessary until the Justice Dept. complies with the order from SCOTUS.

    So far, I haven’t seen the slightest sign that any Federal judge is willing to do this, even though they have the power to do this.

  17. Welcome to the latest constitutional crisis.

    The Supreme Court voted 9-0 to bring him back. The president is forced to do it.

    The president refuses.

    What now? The president should be removed from office. If they just let this go like everything else, there is officially no oversight of the office of the president which is the definition of Dictatorship.

  18. The government has committed a crime. It is now an illegal government. The only legal thing left to do is overthrow the government

  19. So arrests now, right? Law enforcement has now been constitutionally authorized by the judicial branch.

  20. ***All nine justices*** ruled unanimously on this, but the Trump administration is arguing that their role is “limited” in bringing Garcia back, that the supreme court’s order to “facilitate” his return doesn’t necessarily mean that they have to secure his release and physically bring him back…

    So in other words, the order to “facilitate” his return doesn’t mean that the Trump administration has to, *checks notes*, facilitate his return.

    And let’s not skip over the *glaring* contradiction here, because this whole thing started with the Trump admin unlawfully deporting Garcia, asserting it’s authority over all matters of deportation.

    So when it comes to deporting innocent people, the Trump administration has the unilateral authority to do so, but when it comes to complying with a court order to rectify this egregious mistake, they lack that same authority? What a bunch of horseshit.

    Meanwhile, you still have Trump allies insisting that Garcia is a MS-13 gang member, despite the evidence showing otherwise. Despite the fact that he’s never been charged with any crime related to gang activity, despite the police even claiming that he’s not a gang member, despite court filings showing that there is no proof at all to support this allegation.

  21. Reminder, there are over 200 other detainees who were trafficked like Abrego Garcia. Most are innocent of crimes, and there’s no evidence of gang affiliation

    Just want to remind everyone of the scale

  24. No worries, the populace are armed to the teeth, now we get to see what all the screaming about 2nd amendment rights was about, right? Now they’ll just rise up and remove the tyrant, right?

  26. I suspect they are saying no because:

    1. They have no idea where he is

    2. They don’t want him to come back and talk about the conditions there

    3. He’s no longer alive

  27. His lawyers filed contempt charges today.. which will allow the court to specify with exact detail what the trump administration must do!.. we’ll see how that goes!

  28. 9-0 ruling from SCOTUS.

    Let that sink in. 

    Now what?

  29. This case is so frustrating and upsetting.  Bring the guy back assholes.

  30. The guy is dead. There’s no other explanation for fighting it this hard

  31. Kilmar Garcia. His name is Kilmar Garcia. We’re going to need to start insisting on names. Whatever kind of person he may be, he was betrayed as our national premise is betrayed.

    If we’re truly unlucky here, we’re going to need to remember the names so that there’s more attic and less maus for history to save us.

  32. The man never committed a crime. How can they justify his imprisonment under any circumstances?

  34. He tried to overthrow the government and now he’s defying the Supreme Court (while he did a fuckload of illegal shit in between). He needs to be overthrown, Republicans won’t vote to remove him from office. This is officially a constitutional crisis. We need to remove him.

  35. Wonder what happens if a bench warrant is issued for Bondi? 🤔🤔

  36. Don’t have to bring him back?!? Wtf? You sent this poor gentleman there BY MISTAKE, you miserable asshats. Human decency dictates that you right the wrong. But that would assume that these nutsuckers are human and/or decent.

  37. What needs to happen is the incarceration of officials at Homeland Security until the administration acts. Starting at the top, for ignoring a court order. And refer the lawyers to the bar. Over and over again.

  38. In any sane universe, he would be impeached immediately. Republicans are spineless.

  39. If they refuse to bring him back in an unanimous ruling by SCOTUS, we have officially lost the rule of law.

  40. So if democrats ever somehow get power again, it will be perfectly fine to ship any trump loyalist to a work camp then? Cause we all know they would’ve lost their minds if Biden even tried a little of what trump is doing.

  42. There is a remedy for this. It involves Congress doing their fucking job and not only impeaching Trump for abuse of power, but actually convicting him and removing from office.

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