Trump asks US Supreme Court to halt order to return man deported to El Salvador in error

President Donald Trump called on the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to temporarily halt a judge's order requiring his administration to return by the end of the day a Salvadoran man who the government has acknowledged was wrongly deported to El Salvador.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis on Friday ordered the administration to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia by the end of Monday, in response to a lawsuit filed by the man and his family. A lower federal appeals court - the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals - declined on Monday to freeze the judge's order.

Xinis had found that the U.S. government had no lawful authority to detain and deport Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant who lived in Maryland legally with a work permit, and ordered his return by 11:59 p.m. on Monday. He was deported on March 15.

"The United States cannot guarantee success in sensitive international negotiations in advance, least of all when a court imposes an absurdly compressed, mandatory deadline that vastly complicates the give-and-take of foreign-relations negotiations," department lawyers wrote.

"The United States does not control the sovereign nation of El Salvador, nor can it compel El Salvador to follow a federal judge's bidding," they added.

The White House and administration officials have accused Abrego Garcia of being a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which Trump's administration has designated a foreign terrorist organization.

Abrego, whose attorneys say fled gang violence in El Salvador more than a decade ago, has been sent to CECOT, the country’s notorious mega prison. He was pulled over by federal agents and arrested on March 12, while his 5-year-old child sat in the back seat of his car. The government initially alleged Abrego was part of the MS-13 gang, but there is not a court case linking him to the group.

Although, Abrego Garcia received a 2019 judgment in the United States granting him protection from deportation to El Salvador after an immigration judge determined he would face persecution from gangs in his home country if returned.

Xinis had found that the 2019 order prohibiting Abrego Garcia's removal to El Salvador was still in place. Xinis said in her written decision issued on Sunday that "there were no legal grounds whatsoever for his arrest, detention, or removal." The judge called the removal of Abrego Garcia "wholly lawless."

In their Supreme Court filing, Justice Department lawyers said that while Abrego Garcia's removal to El Salvador was "an administrative error," that did not give the judge the authority "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."

There are no pending charges against Abrego Garcia, who is married to an American citizen with whom he is raising a U.S. citizen child, in addition to his wife's two children from a prior relationship. Abrego Garcia's lawyers have denied the allegation that he is part of a gang.

In their Supreme Court filing, Justice Department lawyers said that while Abrego Garcia's removal to El Salvador was "an administrative error," that did not give the judge the authority "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."

Abrego Garcia had complied fully with all directives from immigration officials, including annual check-ins, and had never been charged with or convicted of any crime, the judge wrote. He has been detained in El Salvador at what the judge called "one of the most dangerous prisons in the Western Hemisphere."