The US Supreme Court has delayed a midnight deadline for Donald Trump’s administration to return a man mistakenly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
A US district judge had ordered the administration to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia by the end of Monday, after he and his family filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of his deportation.
The US president’s administration had conceded the 29-year-old should not have been sent to El Salvador because an immigration judge found he likely would face persecution by local gangs.
But the administration argued he is no longer in US custody and the government has no way to get him back.
US District Judge Paula Xinis gave the administration until just before midnight to “facilitate and effectuate” Mr Garcia’s return.
She found the government had no lawful authority to detain and deport Mr Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant who lived in Maryland legally with a work permit.
She said the decision to arrest him and send him to El Salvador appears to be “wholly lawless” as little to no evidence supports a “vague, uncorroborated” allegation he was once a member of the gang MS-13, which Mr Trump’s administration had designated a foreign terrorist organisation.
Mr Garcia’s lawyers have denied he is part of a gang.
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Chief Justice John Roberts, acting on behalf of the US Supreme Court, temporarily halted the judge’s order, giving the nine justices additional time to consider the administration’s request to block the order while litigation in the case continues.
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Supreme Court allows Trump to use 18th-century law for deportations
It comes as the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to use a wartime law from 1798 to deport Venezuelan migrants – but said they must get a court hearing before they are removed from the US.
The bitterly divided 5-4 decision was a response to the administration’s emergency appeal over a court order that had temporarily blocked the summary deportations under President Trump’s usage of the Alien Enemies Act while litigation in the case continues.
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Reacting to the decision with a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Mr Trump wrote: “The Supreme Court has upheld the Rule of Law in our Nation by allowing a President, whoever that may be, to be able to secure our Borders, and protect our families and our Country, itself. A GREAT DAY FOR JUSTICE IN AMERICA!”
The president invoked the act, best known for being used to intern Japanese, Italian and German immigrants during the Second World War, on 15 March to deport alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
