Maryland immigrant wrongly deported to El Salvador must return to US, Supreme Court rules

 

Federal court documents say Kilmar Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador in the early 2000s to escape gang violence

 

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a lower court's decision to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national living in Maryland, from an El Salvador prison where federal officials sent hundreds of suspected criminals and gang members in March.

 

Abrego Garcia, 29, was deported to the El Salvadoran mega-prison last month for being an alleged MS-13 gang member but his attorneys maintain he does not have any gang ties.

 

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered federal officials to coordinate his return to Maryland in a Monday order, calling his deportation "wholly unlawful." On Thursday, the Supreme Court sided with Xinis.

 

"On March 15, 2025, the United States removed Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia from the United States to El Salvador, where he is currently detained in the Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT)," the order states. "The United States acknowledges that Abrego Garcia was subject to a withholding order forbidding his removal to El Salvador and that the removal to El Salvador was therefore illegal."

Date: 2025-04-11