The US chief justice paused an order requiring President
The administrative stay from Chief Justice
The case is the latest flashpoint as Trump asserts sweeping deportation power with minimal judicial oversight. The Supreme Court is also
As is the court’s practice, Roberts didn’t provide an explanation for his stay order and said it will apply “pending further order of the undersigned or of the court.”
The order comes hours after a three-judge federal appeals court panel unanimously
The government “has no legal authority to snatch a person who is lawfully present in the United States off the street and remove him from the country without due process,” Circuit Judge
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The Justice Department, which says Abrego Garcia was flown to El Salvador because of an “administrative error,” contends it no longer has any legal authority over him.
“The United States does not control the sovereign nation of El Salvador, nor can it compel El Salvador to follow a federal judge’s bidding,” US Solicitor General John Sauer told the Supreme Court.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said he was the victim of a “Kafkaesque mistake” by the government.
“There is no dispute that Abrego Garcia is only in El Salvador because the United States sent him there,” his lawyers argued. “There is likewise no dispute that he is being held only because the United States has requested that he be held.”
Roberts signaled the Supreme Court is likely to move quickly in the case, asking Abrego Garcia to file a response by Tuesday at 5 p.m. By the time Roberts issued his order, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers had already filed their brief.
Roberts handles emergency requests involving the 4th Circuit. In all likelihood, he will now refer the matter to the full nine-member court.
Abrego Garcia had been lawfully living in Maryland with his wife and young child, both US citizens. A 2019 immigration court order said he could be deported — but not to El Salvador, where he says he would face gang-based extortion and persecution.
Immigration officials arrested Abrego Garcia March 12 and accused him of playing a “prominent role in MS-13,” though he hasn’t been convicted of a crime or charged with one. He was flown to El Salvador on March 15.
The case is Noem v. Abrego Garcia, 24A949.
(Updates with excerpt from Abrego Garcia’s brief in ninth and 10th paragraphs.)
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