Supreme Court orders Trump to return father who was accidentally deported to 'world's worst prison' due to 'administrative error'
The US Supreme Court has instructed the Trump administration to return a man who was mistakenly deported to an El Salvador mega-prison because of an error.
After Donald Trump invested in a plan to tackle illegal immigration in the United States, more than 250 alleged criminals have currently been deported to El Salvador’s mega prison CECOT.
The prison houses Venezuelan gang members, as well as mass murderers and has been dubbed the ‘worst prison in the world’.
With the capacity to house over 40,000 inmates, it’s not only large, but it’s packed full with dangerous men - and one innocent one.
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The Trump administration has confirmed that it made a mistake when it deported a Maryland father who has protected legal status after believing that he was involved in gang activity.
Just a little over a week ago, the US administration shared that it currently cannot return him due to him being in Salvadorian custody, however, the Supreme Court has stepped in with an order.
Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia is a Salvadoran national who had been granted protected status by an immigration judge back in 2019, which would prohibit the federal government from sending him back to the country.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys said that he had fled gang violence over 10 years ago, but an administrative error led to him being arrested by ICE in mid-March 'due to his prominent role in MS-13,' according to a court declaration.
Robert Cerna, an acting ICE field office director, explained how the administrative error may have occurred via his declaration.
He said: "Abrego-Garcia was not on the initial manifest of the Title 8 flight to be removed to El Salvador. Rather, he was an alternate. As others were removed from the flight for various reasons, he moved up the list and was assigned to the flight.
"The manifest did not indicate that Abrego-Garcia should not be removed. Through administrative error, Abrego-Garcia was removed from the United States to El Salvador.
"This was an oversight, and the removal was carried out in good faith based on the existence of a final order of removal and Abrego-Garcia’s purported membership in MS-13."
However, now that the Trump administration acknowledged that he was deported due to an ‘administrative error’, the Supreme Court has stepped in to back up a district’s court order to ‘facilitate and effectuate’ his return to the US.
On Thursday (April 10) the Court made a 9-0 ruling which declined to block the lower court's order to the administration, which will now mean that Abrego Garcia will need to be released from custody in El Salvador and ‘to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent’.
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, a lawyer for Abrego Garcia, said in a statement that ‘the rule of law prevailed’, adding: "The Supreme Court upheld the district judge's order that the government has to bring Kilmar home."
The case will now return to the trial court as the justices did not give the administration a deadline for when the man should be returned to the US.
Topics: US News, Donald Trump, Politics
Britt Jones