Supreme Court says administration must facilitate return of Maryland man

Over the last couple of weeks, the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been front and center in the news.

The case finally made its way to the Supreme Court, and the outcome was not quite what Trump had hoped.

Wrongly Deported

The issue for Garcia is that the Trump administration claimed he was affiliated with MS-13, but the administration has yet to show proof of that.

The second issue, and far more serious, is that Garcia had been given deportation protection by the court, specifically not to be sent back to El Salvador due to a threat from gangs against him.

For some reason, after he was taken into custody, nobody seemed to check the system for this, and Garcia found himself on a flight with 300 other alleged gang members to a high-security prison.

Judge Paulina Xinis ripped the administration in her ruling, demanding that the administration bring him back immediately.

An Administrative Error

The Trump administration has been sending mixed messages about this case, initially stating that it had made an “administrative error” in deporting Garcia to El Salvador.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, also slammed the administration for not giving Garcia the chance to prove he was not a gang member, stating, “There are lots of things they could have done.

“But each one of those is in a court and gives him the opportunity to defend himself. And they didn’t do any of them. They just put him on an airplane.”

According to the report, the government has tried to tie Garcia to the MS-13 gang due to an arrest in 2019 outside of a Home Depot, where Garcia was allegedly looking for work.

Bring Him Back

The Supreme Court sided against the administration on this one, also stating that the administration needs to bring Garcia back home.

The ruling stated, “The District Court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs. For its part, the Government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.”

There were no noted dissents to the order, but Justice Sotomayor was adamant she would have declined the emergency appeal by the administration and allowed the lower court ruling to stand at the time.

It goes without saying that this is an absolute disaster for the Trump administration, having claimed it had evidence that Garcia was linked to MS-13. If there case depended upon him standing at Home Depot, Republicans are going to have a lot to explain come election day. If the administration screwed up, it needs to step up and own it or this will never go away.