The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered the government to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran man who was mistakenly deported, marking a rare legal victory against President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration agenda.
Garcia, who had been living in Maryland and is married to a U.S. citizen, was one of over 200 people recently deported to El Salvador as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown. Many of the deportees were accused of being members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the administration has labeled a foreign terrorist organization. However, Justice Department attorneys later acknowledged that Garcia’s removal was due to an “administrative error.”
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority issued the ruling on Thursday, instructing the U.S. government to ensure Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to process his immigration case as if the wrongful deportation had never occurred.
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, Garcia’s attorney, welcomed the decision, saying, “the rule of law prevailed.”
Garcia had been living in the U.S. under legal protection since 2019, when a judge ruled he should not be deported due to the risk of harm in El Salvador. Following his erroneous deportation, he was placed in the CECOT high-security prison, known for housing alleged gang members under extreme conditions.
Lower courts had ordered the U.S. government to return Garcia by midnight Monday. However, the Supreme Court paused that deadline after the administration filed an emergency appeal.
In its filing, the government claimed Garcia was a member of the Salvadoran gang MS-13—an accusation lower courts said lacked evidence. The administration also argued it no longer had jurisdiction over Garcia because he was no longer on U.S. soil, calling the order to retrieve him “unprecedented and indefensible.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended the deportations, telling Axios, “We’re confident that people in [CECOT] should be there, and they should stay there for the rest of their lives.”
The White House has celebrated a $6 million agreement with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to detain alleged gang members in CECOT, part of its broader immigration enforcement strategy.
While the Supreme Court nullified the Monday return deadline, it upheld the lower court’s broader order requiring Garcia’s return, instructing the court to revise its directive “with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”
In a dissenting opinion, liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson argued there was “no basis in law” for Garcia’s deportation.
Human Rights Watch criticized both the U.S. and Salvadoran governments on Friday, demanding transparency about all detainees held in CECOT and calling for access to legal counsel. The organization condemned the treatment of deportees as “cruel and inhumane.”
Separately, the Supreme Court recently upheld the Trump administration’s authority to continue deporting Venezuelan migrants under an obscure 18th-century wartime law—another controversial element of Trump’s evolving immigration policies.
