SCOTUS Rules on Deportation Case
Supreme Court rules on deportation: The Court, in an unsigned order, told the Trump administration that it must “facilitate and effectuate the return” of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia from CECOT, the Salvadoran prison he is being held in.
“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,” reads the order. “On Friday, April 4, the United States District Court for the District of Maryland entered an order directing the Government to ‘facilitate and effectuate the return of [Abrego Garcia] to the United States by no later than 11:59 PM on Monday, April 7.'” The order notes that this deadline has already passed (Chief Justice John Roberts had issued an administrative stay to give the Supreme Court time to consider) but that the lower court’s “order properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.” Meanwhile, the “effectuate” part is “unclear” and possibly “exceed[s] the District Court’s authority.”
“The district court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the executive branch in the conduct of foreign affairs,” adds the order.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson appended a statement below the unsigned order, adding, “To this day, the Government has cited no basis in law for Abrego Garcia’s warrantless arrest, his removal to El Salvador, or his confinement in a Salvadoran prison. Nor could it.”
“Instead of hastening to correct its egregious error, the Government dismissed it as an ‘oversight,'” the justices add, issuing a strong rebuke of the administration’s actions.
Some case background is provided here (and I spoke about this case at some length here, but it’s behind a paywall, and nestled among thoughts on motherhood and truth czars and repro tech). The next steps for Abrego Garcia are currently unclear, but this could be considered a bit of a measured opening salvo from the Supreme Court, providing some indication that they will be curbing the Trump administration’s worst impulses, in a very careful and considered way. This is checks and balances at its finest—provided the administration adheres.
Xi tries to make new friends: “There are no winners in a tariff war and China is not afraid of oppression, Chinese President Xi Jinping told visiting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday,” reports the South China Morning Post. “In a direct appeal to the European Union, said China and the bloc should shoulder their international responsibilities and ‘jointly resist unilateral bullying.'” While meeting with the Spanish prime minister on Friday, Xi made a deal that opens up the Chinese market to Spanish pork imports.
Xi is, of course, refe
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