Lawyer for Salvadoran man Kilmar Abrego Garcia hails Supremeย Courtโs order, saying that โthe rule of law prevailedโ.
The US Supreme Court has ordered the government to โfacilitateโ the return of a wrongly deported Salvadoran man, in a decision seen as a small victory against President Donald Trumpโs immigration policy.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, was living in the eastern state of Maryland until he became one of more than 200 people sent to a prison in El Salvador last month as part of Trumpโs crackdown on undocumented migrants.
Most of the deportees were suspected members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration has declared a โforeign terrorist organisationโ.
But Justice Department lawyers later admitted that Garcia, who is married to a United States citizen, was deported due to an โadministrative errorโ.
In a decision issued on Thursday, the conservative-majority Supreme Court ordered the government to โโfacilitateโ Garciaโs release from custody in an El Salvador prison โand to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvadorโ.
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, a lawyer for Abrego Garcia, hailed the courtโs ruling, saying โthe rule of law prevailedโ.
Garcia had been living in the US under protected legal status since 2019 when a judge ruled he should not be deported because he could be harmed in his home country.
Following his deportation and internment in the notorious CECOT counterterrorist prison, lower courts had ordered that the US government return him to the US by midnight on Monday.
The Supreme Court put that order on hold hours before the deadline, after the administration requested an emergency ruling.
In its challenge, the government argued that Garcia is a member of Salvadoran gang MS-13, a claim the lower courts found lacked evidence.
The US government also argued that it no longer had jurisdiction to have Garcia released now that he is on Salvadoran soil, calling the lower courtsโ orders โunprecedented and indefensibleโ.
โWeโre confident that people that are [in CECOT] should be there, and they should stay there for the rest of their lives,โ Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Wednesday, according to news site Axios.
The White House has trumpeted a $6m deal with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in return for his holding alleged gang members in the ultra-high-security jail.
โThe (Monday) deadline in the challenged order is no longer effective,โ the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.
However, โthe rest of the District Courtโs order remains in effectโ requiring Abrego Garciaโs return, the judges added โ although the lower court must clarify its order โwith due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairsโ.
A statement signed by liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson argued there was โno basis in lawโ for Garciaโs removal to El Salvador.
Human Rights Watch on Friday called on the US government to disclose information about all of the people it has moved to CECOT and allow them contact with the outside world, while denouncing the โcrueltyโ of the treatment of the deportees by the US and El Salvador governments.
In a separate decision issued recently, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump can continue the governmentโs deportation of Venezuelan migrants under an 18th-century wartime law.
