The highest court in the land has spoken: Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man legally living and working in Maryland, was yanked out of the country in error—and the U.S. government now has to fix its mistake.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court delivered a firm directive to the Trump administration: bring the man back. The move comes after lower court Judge Paula Xinis ordered the government to “facilitate and effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return following his wrongful removal to El Salvador on March 15. The Justice Department tried to dodge the responsibility—but the Supreme Court wasn’t having it.
In a brief but clear unsigned opinion, the justices ruled that the U.S. government must take action to ensure Abrego Garcia is no longer stuck in Salvadoran custody and that his case proceeds as if he’d never been plucked from his home and sent abroad.
Judge Xinis doubled down shortly after the ruling, instructing federal authorities to do everything in their power to get him home now, not later. A hearing is set for Friday in Maryland to make sure the administration is actually doing something about it.
Abrego Garcia’s camp welcomed the news with a mix of relief and frustration. “The rule of law prevailed,” said one of his legal representatives. “Now they need to stop wasting time and get moving.”
But not everyone’s on board. The Justice Department called the court’s ruling a reminder of the president’s primacy in handling foreign policy, arguing that no judge can order a foreign nation to do anything—and suggesting Xinis may have overstepped in her directive to “effectuate” the return.
The backstory reads like a bureaucratic nightmare. ICE agents detained Abrego Garcia on March 12, claiming he might have gang ties—an allegation his lawyers flatly deny. Three days later, he was on a plane to El Salvador, one of over 200 individuals deported in a coordinated operation. Among them, according to officials, were Venezuelan nationals suspected of gang affiliation. Abrego Garcia had no criminal record, held a valid work permit, and had been granted deportation protection back in 2019 after an immigration judge ruled he’d likely face persecution from gangs in El Salvador.
Yet, somehow, he was swept up and shipped out.
The Justice Department admitted to an “administrative error” but insisted that his actual removal wasn’t a mistake—only the destination was. Their legal filings tried to thread that needle, stating the real problem was sending him to El Salvador despite the protection order in place.
But Judge Xinis wasn’t buying it. She called the entire process “wholly lawless” and said there was zero legal basis for his arrest, detention, or removal. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, refusing to freeze her order.
Even the more liberal members of the Supreme Court couldn’t hide their dismay. One justice blasted the administration’s position, writing that it had “no basis in law” to leave a man—husband, father, and legal resident—in a Salvadoran prison with no charges, no conviction, and no justification.
Abrego Garcia is married to a U.S. citizen and raising her two children along with their own American-born child. He had been working, paying taxes, and staying out of trouble. And then he vanished—caught in the gears of an enforcement machine that, at least in this case, spun wildly off course.
While the Supreme Court’s ruling leaves some room for the executive branch to manage foreign affairs, it also makes one thing crystal clear: when the government gets it this wrong, it can’t just shrug and walk away.
