Attorneys for a Maryland man mistakenly deported to a Salvadoran prison said the Trump administration has run afoul of a Supreme Court order by failing to even attempt to secure his return.
The Supreme Court last week determined the Trump administration must “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national now held in the country’s most notorious prison.
But attorneys for Abrego Garcia contend the Trump administration has not even tried to do so.
“The Government contends that the term ‘facilitate’ is limited to ‘remov[ing] any domestic obstacles that would otherwise impede the alien’s ability to return here.’ Not so. The Supreme Court ordered 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,’” lawyers wrote in a Tuesday brief.
“To give any meaning to the Supreme Court’s order, the Government should at least be required to request the release of Abrego Garcia. To date, the Government has not done so.”
Attorneys for the Justice Department and Abrego Garcia are set to appear before U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis later Tuesday.
On Monday, attorneys for the Justice Department flouted an order from Xinis to provide an update on Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts and efforts to secure his return, instead submitting a sworn affidavit from a Department of Homeland Security official suggesting they were not obligated to do so.
The Trump administration’s position on the case was made clear in an Oval Office meeting Monday alongside Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.
“That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said.
“The Supreme Court ruled, president, that if El Salvador wants to return him … we would facilitate it, meaning provide a plane.”
During the same meeting, Bukele referred to Abrego Garcia as a terrorist.
“How could I return him to the United States? I smuggle him to the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous,” Bukele said.
“I don’t have the power to return him to the United States. I’m not releasing — I mean, we’re not very fond of releasing terrorists into our country.”
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys on Tuesday noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently announced that 10 more men had been sent to CECOT, the Salvadoran prison known by its acronym in Spanish.
“That involved all three of the actions that the Government contends the courts cannot order: “(i) mak[ing] demands of the El Salvadoran government (ii) dispatch[ing] personnel onto the soil of an independent, sovereign nation, and (iii) send[ing] an aircraft into the airspace of a sovereign foreign nation,” they wrote.
“The Government holds contractual rights to send prisoners to its ‘contract facility,’ where the United States has ‘outsourced’ part of its prison system, and it holds ‘the power to secure and transport [its] detainees, Abrego Garcia included.’ It can exercise those same contractual rights to request their release, as the detainees are being held ‘pending the United States’ decision on [their] long term disposition.’”