Chief Justice Roberts pauses deadline for return of Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador
Source: AP
Updated 4:08 PM EDT, April 7, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts agreed Monday to pause a midnight deadline for the Trump administration to return a Maryland man mistakenly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
The temporary order comes hours after a Justice Department emergency appeal to the Supreme Court arguing U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis overstepped her authority when she ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to the United States.
The administration has conceded that Abrego Garcia should not have been sent to El Salvador because an immigration judge found he likely would face persecution by local gangs. But he is no longer in U.S. custody and the government has no way to get him back, the administration argued. Xinis gave the administration until just before midnight to “facilitate and effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return.
“The district court’s injunction—which requires Abrego Garcia’s release from the custody of a foreign sovereign and return to the United States by midnight on Monday—is patently unlawful,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in court papers, casting the order as one in “a deluge of unlawful injunctions” judges have issued to slow President Donald Trump’s agenda. The Justice Department appeal was directed to Roberts because he handles appeals from Maryland.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-trump-deportation-salvador-maryland-40136c5aa844b6c12ba20ee67ab4df9a
Article updated.
Original article -
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts agreed Monday to pause a midnight deadline for the Trump administration to return a Maryland man mistakenly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
The Justice Department argued in an emergency appeal to the justices that U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis overstepped her authority when she ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to the United States.
The administration has conceded that Abrego Garcia should not have been sent to El Salvador because an immigration judge found he likely would face persecution by local gangs.
But he is no longer in U.S. custody and the government has no way to get him back, the administration argued.
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Marthe48
(20,442 posts)Christ, I hate these bastards.
ananda
(31,509 posts)I think there's something in the GOP energy (based
chiefly on greed) that turns people into monsters.
Radix malorum est cupiditas.
Botany
(73,831 posts)….. Russia’s help in 2016. Thomas should have never gotten out of the Senate too. 3
other women were ready to testify that Thomas had done the same sort of behavior
to them that he did to Anita Hill but were blocked from testifying too.
The GOP knows that demographically they are under water so they have had a long
term program to control America via the courts.
MadameButterfly
(2,790 posts)These guys don't study history. They don't know about Stalin, Caligula, the French Revolution. They don't know that power corrupts, or that this corruption will be turned against them, too.
And the rich power brokers in the GOP are just as dumb about this as the uneducated masses.
stollen
(784 posts)What does Putin have on that creep?
JT45242
(3,249 posts)Originalist lying sack of crap.
He should have issued penalties to the idiots that sent him illegally in the first place.
Marthe48
(20,442 posts)rights.
roscoeroscoe
(1,717 posts)Roberts is a Handmaiden to tyranny.
Wingus Dingus
(8,942 posts)El Salvador did something to this guy.
Miguelito Loveless
(4,904 posts)extra time to kill him. Neither Trump nor El Salvador are going to allow him back in the country where he can talk to the press.
Roberts has his orders.
AnnaLee
(1,258 posts)Since he fled El Salvador with acceptance into the US, he might have been in danger if he remained there. I have been wondering all along if the reason for resisting arranging his return was because he was no longer living.
Was there a political reason he came to the US?
PennyC
(2,321 posts)Bullets might be cheaper than prison food. For all of the evacuees.
ColoradoHoosier
(33 posts)Is because he was being targeted by a Salvadorian gang, and his life was in eminent danger.
Therefore, yea... he's likely dead. That's why they are pretending they have no power to bring him back. What they mean is... no power to bring him back to life. And of course Roberts is called upon to give cover.
slightlv
(5,360 posts)it's truly got me convinced something has happened to him already, and they're desperate to keep the public from finding out about it. If they can just "disappear" him from the news for long enough, trump figures we'll forget all about him (and he's probably right in a large majority of cases). The only question I have left is who did the deed? Was it El Salvador or American ICE who killed him. That, I really want to know because it seems like ICE has no moral or ethical boundaries any longer. They always were short on "service", let alone compassion. But now? They're as evil incarnate as their big boss.
They also want the ability to disappear anyone for anything at any time, including "dissident" American citizens. He's following Hitler's playbook and no one is calling him on it. Thanks to police immunity, we've had busted in doors at 2am for many years. But now that's about to expand to another faceless fascist institution. This is where we completely lose our right to speak or think for ourselves. The fear will become too deeply ingrained for most of the populace. They'll find it easier to just keep their mouths and their minds shut. If they can maintain this fallacy that there's no way to legally bring this poor American home again, they'll have set up the perfect gulag... it's in another country where we have absolutely no oversight and America is not responsible for it or any of the atrocities that occur there. And now, Roberts seems just as easy with this decision as he was with Bush's "enhanced interrogation." Is there no limit to the evil these people think and do? Damn!
bluestarone
(19,564 posts)Just as bad as their stupid fucking immunity bullshit!!
Chasstev365
(5,337 posts)WTF?
3:05 PM
Citizen's United
Presidential Immunity
Now this?
BumRushDaShow
(150,791 posts)(his majority opinion)
OMGWTF
(4,659 posts)Lovie777
(17,969 posts)what a bunch of bullshit.
underpants
(189,948 posts)LetMyPeopleVote
(161,640 posts)
neohippie
(1,226 posts)If this case hasn't gone before the Supreme court how does the Chief Justice Roberts have to power to interfere with another courts ruling in a case that hasn't even come before him?
BumRushDaShow
(150,791 posts)See right above your post for what was ordered.
Roberts is in charge of the emergency petitions brought from Districts under the 4th Circuit & D.C. Circuit (all Justices are assigned a Circuit to do similar).
Butterflylady
(4,367 posts)If it went to the SUPREME COURT.
Don't be alarmed.
angrychair
(10,538 posts)SCOTUS just legalized the Mango Mussolini sending people to foreign torture prisons.
The United States has fallen. We are officially a dictatorship.
totodeinhere
(13,598 posts)angrychair
(10,538 posts)What possible compelling legal questions could possibly need to be addressed that wasn't already addressed by the lower courts?
The only reason is for SCOTUS to overrule the lower courts and give him legal cover to send US to foreign torture prisons.
totodeinhere
(13,598 posts)And I do not agree with putting this case on hold. However, all it is is a hold. This type of order has nothing to do with legislating anything as you claimed. It is merely a temporary hold. Such actions whether you agree with them or not are routine. Nowhere in his order did Roberts indicate that the government's action is legal.
Bengus81
(8,686 posts)This is fucking BS............
BumRushDaShow
(150,791 posts)to the post above by LetMyPeopleVote, where a copy of the order was included.
I.e., responses are due by tomorrow.
The shame of it all though, is the same old same old "delay" while an innocent person is suffering. I know realistically that even if they did cough up money to "buy him back" (which is what they would probably have to do), it wouldn't happen by midnight tonight.
FBaggins
(28,079 posts)They each supervise/oversee one or more of the circuits and can temporarily block something until the full court can consider whether to hear the case.
They very frequently consult with each other before doing so - but they don’t have to
mountain grammy
(27,696 posts)No due process no nothing. The End!
Magoo48
(6,227 posts)It’s about time for the military to protect the Constitution they’ve sworn to uphold.
Butterflylady
(4,367 posts)It will be taken up by the whole court.
róisín_dubh
(11,981 posts)This is fucking outrageous.
regnaD kciN
(26,960 posts)
bronxiteforever
(10,329 posts)If you can grab a person from the US and ship them to a penal colony to torture and enslave : there is no law and no justice.
Roberts and his minions have killed Justice by drowning it in a bathtub.
The lamps are going out.
Cirsium
(2,305 posts)I avail myself with relief of the opportunity of speaking to the people of the United States. I do not know how long such liberties will be allowed. The stations of uncensored expression are closing down; the lights are going out; but there is still time for those to whom freedom and parliamentary government mean something, to consult together. Let me, then, speak in truth and earnestness while time remains.
...
Dictatorship – the fetish worship of one man – is a passing phase. A state of society where men may not speak their minds, where children denounce their parents to the police, where a business man or small shopkeeper ruins his competitor by telling tales about his private opinions; such a state of society cannot long endure if brought into contact with the healthy outside world. The light of civilised progress with its tolerances and co-operation, with its dignities and joys, has often in the past been blotted out. But I hold the belief that we have now at last got far enough ahead of barbarism to control it, and to avert it, if only we realise what is afoot and make up our minds in time. We shall do it in the end. But how much harder our toil for every day’s delay!
Is this a call to war? Does anyone pretend that preparation for resistance to aggression is unleashing war? I declare it to be the sole guarantee of peace. We need the swift gathering of forces to confront not only military but moral aggression; the resolute and sober acceptance of their duty by the English-speaking peoples and by all the nations, great and small, who wish to walk with them. Their faithful and zealous comradeship would almost between night and morning clear the path of progress and banish from all our lives the fear which already darkens the sunlight to hundreds of millions of men.
Winston Churchill
October 16, 1938
The Defence of Freedom and Peace (The Lights are Going Out)
SalamanderSleeps
(768 posts)The GOP will swallow anything, and then will make everyone else in the U.S. swallow it too.
Joinfortmill
(17,830 posts)
Mysterian
(5,537 posts)Elaborate your reasons for allowing this innocent person to remain incarcerated without evidence from the government.
lark
(24,877 posts)They are in on the reich wing plot to destroy American democracy.
Edited for clarity.
Wild blueberry
(7,572 posts)They sent Abrego Garcia to Hell, they can damn well get him back. Now.
And it's on our dime, too.
Roberts, you're a putz.
bucolic_frolic
(49,782 posts)The courts order his return. That pressures the government to use diplomatic influence, pressure, or any other negotiating tactic at their disposal. They have established and ongoing rapport with the government currently holding the detainee. This most likely gets resolved if everyone does their job. SCOTUS casting this however they're going to frame it - executive privilege, diplomacy, unitary executive, DOJ prerogative - makes no difference. These are rights of every citizen and non-citizen. Habeas corpus. Bill of Rights level stuff, the foundations of the social contract. Citizens give up their rights to the state which agrees to protect everyone - citizens, non-citizens, foreigners, visitors, those charged, those in jail for that matter. Roberts Court is insane.
et tu
(2,140 posts)garcia does return in a body bag,
then dna tests should be required
to make sure it's him
we the people is all that is left
Stpaoulboy
(39 posts)Pure evil, anyone of us could be next.
Irish_Dem
(68,118 posts)Who can disappear any of us at any time now.
Dr. Shepper
(3,149 posts)America is over. And ANYTHING goes.
Lonestarblue
(12,548 posts)An innocent man is in a prison where he should never have been sent, one noted for torture and inhumane treatment, and Roberts decides that the SC needs a few days, or maybe weeks or months, to decide whether to let Trump leave him there to rot in violation of US law and human decency. They are all monsters.
Bluestocking
(52 posts)and a 3rd generation US citizen, until there is a Democratic President I will not fly on an airplane, travel to a red state or leave the US. Once they rendition you there is no coming back. I am not going to give them the opportunity to make a mistake with my freedom.
regnaD kciN
(26,960 posts)If it were possible, I would recommend leaving to a country that can give you permanent residency and still has due process and human rights.
Trump’s already said he plans to send U.S. citizens next. And, if he invokes the Insurrection Act in a couple of weeks, he can decide who can be designated a “terrorist” subject to rendition. (And, now, the government has untold numbers of photos of last weekend’s protests with which to use facial recognition for identifying such “terrorists.”)
They can’t disappear you if you’re not on U.S. soil.
johnnyfins
(1,960 posts)To the ElSalvadoran gulag. Maybe even SCOTUS judges...jus sayin.
sinkingfeeling
(55,039 posts)how long and what comes next.
iluvtennis
(21,137 posts)onenote
(45,116 posts)Most folks here have no experience with, and thus no understanding of Supreme Court procedure. FWIW, I have both.
If Roberts had denied the administrations emergency stay request -- keeping the district court order in place, Trump could've immediately re-flied the request with any Justice he chose. It doesn't take a crystal ball to know that he would've gone to Thomas and that Thomas would have granted the stay. Roberts has fast-tracked the matter, requesting a response by 5 pm tomorrow. If it had been put into Thomas' hands, he could have slow-rolled the case.
So, this probably is the best outcome one could expect. What the full court decides -- and where Roberts is on the question -- is yet to be known.
Iggo
(48,785 posts)Most of us here haven’t been to prison. And the ones who have, haven’t been to Salvadoran gangster torture prison.
That man’s life is hell until we can get him out of there. Whatever you imagine he’s going through, it’s a thousand times worse.
.
Princess Turandot
(4,846 posts)DOJ's appeal to SCOTUS was done separately/in addition to its appeal of the original ruling to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. Had he not referred it to the full court, DOJ could have appealed it again to another individual justice.
Also, shortly after the stay was released, a decision was issued by a 4th Circuit's three judge panel, which unanimously upheld the lower court's decision. The panel included judges appointed by Reagan, Clinton and Obama. I'm not a mind-reader, but that bodes well for an ultimate decision, as frustrating as this is.
______________
Supreme Court Pauses Midnight Deadline
CNN, via WTTW (Chicago)
"The Supreme Court on Monday temporarily paused a court-imposed midnight deadline to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, agreeing to a request from President Donald Trump to give both sides more time to make their arguments.
Chief Justice John Roberts granted the “administrative stay” on his own, a move that will extend the deadline until the court hands down a more fulsome decision – probably within a few days. Roberts handles emergency cases rising from the federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia.
[...]
Appeals Court Declines to Block Order
"The request to the Supreme Court came minutes before a ruling from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denying DOJ’s request to lift the lower-court order.
The panel rejecting the appeal was: Judge Stephanie Thacker, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, Judge Harvie Wilkinson III, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, and Judge Robert King, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton."
_____________
LetMyPeopleVote
(161,640 posts)This may only be a procedural stay
https://bsky.app/profile/lucasmundus.bsky.social/post/3lmaw2elul22w
Link to tweet
https://www.rawstory.com/supreme-court-2671687442/
Roberts ruled Monday to temporarily block a court order that would have required the Trump administration to return 29-year-old Kilmar Abrego García to the U.S. by 11:59 p.m. Monday. The Justice Department then filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court, leading to the Roberts decision.
For now, Garcia will remain in El Salvador.
New York Civil Rights attorney Andrew C. Laufer, Esq. explained on X, "It’s a typical procedural stay. Don’t look too much into it," but some social media users on the left expressed their outrage.
Grumpy Old Woman
(27 posts)I'm wondering if some billionaire with his own military and jetliner could arrange for some of his enemies to be held there - or, could we raise enough through "Go Fund Me" to send some of our own picks?
Are El Salvador incarcerations just sold to the U.S., or is it an open market?
Just asking for a friend.
Kid Berwyn
(19,954 posts)Like that time he didn't see the word "Insurrection."
Smarmy little turd is a traitor.
damifino10
(84 posts)Bull Shit!!! I am so sick of these lying ass hats.
Iggo
(48,785 posts)Bluetus
(944 posts)They aren't giving ANYBODY due process. This isn't a case of mistaken identity or anything like that. You can't deport 20 million people if you stop to see who they are.
Do they have dark skin? Do they have a name you can't pronounce? Do they have an accent?
Close enough.
surfered
(6,169 posts)Kilmar Abrego was sent to the gulag without any judicial proceeding and the government admitted it.
dweller
(26,378 posts)That up 160 (?) ppl in that roundup by ICE had no criminal record . I wonder what will become of them also .
If scotus rules that Abrego Garcia must stay , then I suppose the others are condemned as well .
😐
✌🏻
BumRushDaShow
(150,791 posts)
BlueKota
(4,191 posts)derriere!
kacekwl
(8,203 posts)forget this judge. I hope he looks in his mirror tonight and can't stand the guilt and kills himself.
Initech
(104,493 posts) GoYouPackersGo
(229 posts)They just need a little more time for him to "fall ill."
lees1975
(6,420 posts)Predictably.
Godot51
(411 posts)So, partisan politics are more important than mere justice to this hack.
C Moon
(12,797 posts)What the hell is wrong with our legal system? The rich have no boundaries.
LymphocyteLover
(7,796 posts)of this admin's policy that is worded strongly enough that it will resonate and force them to comply. But I will not hold my breath either.
Deminpenn
(16,737 posts)He said the 5-4 decision involved how the case was filed in court, if it was filed under the correct statute or writ. He pointed out that all 9 Justices agreed that anyone potentially being deported had to have due process and a chance to argue their case against being deported. He also said Roberts' ruling pausing the lower court order on returing the wrongly deported MD man was adminstrative and that MD man's attorneys has already filed its brief to Roberts/SCOTUS.
travelingthrulife
(2,060 posts)4catsmom
(633 posts)and they are to blame for the U.S. becoming Argentina. We need to stop this now!