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Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts granted a stay Monday pausing a lower court order that gave the Trump administration until 12 AM Tuesday to return a wrongly deported father of three from a maximum security prison in El Salvador to the U.S.
The administrative stay issued by Roberts gives the highest court extra time to issue a final ruling, which is expected in the next few days. Facing the original midnight deadline, the Trump administration on Monday filed a motion arguing that the order to return Garcia was an “unprecedented” overstepping of authority by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis.
Trump administration officials admitted that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvador native and Maryland resident who is married to a U.S. citizen and holds a work permit issued by the Department of Homeland Security, should not have been deported, calling it an “administrative error.” Abrego Garcia was among 238 men who were swept up, denied due process, and illegally flown to El Salvador on March 15. They were accused of being Venezuelan gang members and have since been imprisoned in CECOT, a notorious mega-prison that squeezes 65 to 70 inmates in each cell and doesn’t allow them outdoors. The U.S. is paying El Salvador $6 million to house the migrants.
“This order—and its demand to accomplish sensitive foreign negotiations post-haste, and effectuate Abrego Garcia’s return tonight—is unprecedented and indefensible,” recently confirmed Solicitor General John Sauer wrote in the filing, arguing that the order was far too difficult a lift to accomplish in such a short time.
Given that shameless media influencer and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem conducted a grotesque and inhumane photo shoot inside the Salvadoran prison in late March, the idea that the Trump administration can’t manage to get one wrongfully deported person back on a plane would be comical—if not for the fact that a man’s life is at stake.
Trump’s appeal to the Supreme Court came after his administration failed to get a lower appeals court to vacate the original order. Judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia, excoriated the unconstitutional deportation in a scathing opinion,
“The United States Government has no legal authority to snatch a person who is lawfully present in the United States off the street and remove him from the country without due process,” the judges wrote. “The Government’s contention otherwise, and its argument that the federal courts are powerless to intervene, are unconscionable”
On Sunday, “60 Minutes” reported that they could not find any public criminal records, in the United States or abroad, for 75% of the immigrants illegally sent to the Salvadoran prison.
According to the segment, reporters were only able to locate “records” for 22% of the 179 imprisoned men whose names were released by the Trump administration. Of those, only 6% had any form of violent felony charges on their records.
Friends and loved ones have risked their own safety to come out in defense of many of the men they say have been wrongfully targeted by the Trump administration’s bigoted xenophobia.
Related | Why is Trump trying to ship US citizens and immigrants to El Salvador?
That includes Andry Hernandez Romero, a gay makeup artist who came to the United States in 2024. Friend Lindsay Toczylowski told CBS News that Romero was seeking asylum because he feared for his life as a gay man in conservative Venezuela.
“It’s horrifying to see someone who we’ve met and know as a sweet, funny artist in the most horrible conditions I could imagine,” Toczylowski added.
Hernandez Romero, according to reports, fell prey to the Trump administration’s shaky claims that the people they deported are affiliated with illegal “gang” activity as proven by tattoos and clothing deemed suspicious by U.S. officials. Hernandez Romero’s lawyers say that their client has tattoos of crowns with the words “Mom” and “Dad” next to them.
Family members of Mervin Jose Yamarte Fernandez recognized him in a propaganda video showing the detained men being transported to the military flight headed to El Salvador. His sister, Jare, told the Miami Herald that her brother has no gang ties and zero tattoos.
The clock is ticking for the Supreme Court to make the right decision and free Abrego Garcia, Hernandez Romero, Yamarte Fernandez, and scores of others. With lives at risk and the integrity of due process itself on the line, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
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