The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to block a judge’s order requiring it to return a Maryland man who was accidentally deported to a high-security prison in El Salvador, claiming that it “sets the United States up for failure” because it cannot compel El Salvador to “follow a federal judge’s bidding.”

The Justice Department’s request for emergency relief from the high court comes as it faces a court order from the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals that the man Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, be returned to the U.S. by 11:59 p.m. Monday. Abrego Garcia was deported to a Salvadoran supermax prison on March 15 in what the Trump administration described as an “administrative error” – despite a 2019 protective order that should have prevented him from being sent to the country. Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old father, was removed from the U.S. on a series of deportation flights transporting hundreds of people to the notorious Salvadoran prison known as CECOT.

U.S. District Court Paula Xinis of Maryland issued the return order last Friday, calling Abrego Garcia’s deportation ‘unlawful.’  However John Sauer, who was confirmed as U.S. solicitor general last week, wrote in a filing: “The district court has no jurisdiction over the Government of El Salvador and thus no authority to order Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States. The Constitution charges the president, not federal district courts, with the conduct of foreign diplomacy and protecting the nation against foreign terrorists, including by effectuating their removal.”  Sauer called the district court’s decision “unprecedented and indefensible,” and claimed the the lower courts are trying 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.”

According to court records, Abrego Garcia, a native of El Salvador, came to the U.S. illegally in 2011 when he was 16 years old.  He was arrested in 2019 alongside three other men in Maryland and detained by federal immigration authorities while an immigration judge examined his case. The Department of Homeland Security put forth evidence during a bond hearing before the immigration judge, claiming that a “proven and reliable source” confirmed Abrego Garcia had ties to the MS-13 gang, and the judge denied his request for release on bond.  Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have argued in court filings that he has no criminal history, stating: “He has never been charged or convicted of any criminal charges, in the United States, El Salvador, or any other country.”

Editorial credit: Dennis MacDonald / Shutterstock.com