Supreme Court orders Trump to return father who was accidentally deported to 'world's worst prison' due to 'administrative error'

The US Supreme Court has directed the Trump administration to bring back a man wrongly sent to an El Salvador mega-prison due to an administrative mistake. Following Donald Trump's initiative to combat illegal immigration in the United States, over 250 alleged criminals have been deported to El Salvador's CECOT prison facility. This prison holds Venezuelan gang members and mass murderers and has earned the reputation as the 'world's worst prison.' With room for more than 40,000 inmates, it contains numerous dangerous criminals - plus one innocent person.

The Trump administration has acknowledged its error in deporting a Maryland father who possessed protected legal status after incorrectly identifying him as involved in gang activities. About a week ago, US officials claimed they could not retrieve him because he was in Salvadorian custody, but the Supreme Court has now issued a directive to resolve the situation.

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen, received protected status from an immigration judge in 2019, which should have prevented the federal government from returning him to El Salvador. His lawyers stated that he escaped gang violence more than a decade ago, but a clerical error led to his arrest by ICE in mid-March for allegedly having a "prominent role in MS-13," according to court documents.

Robert Cerna, an acting ICE field office director, explained the possible cause of the administrative error in his declaration: "Abrego-Garcia was not on the initial manifest of the Title 8 flight to be removed to El Salvador. Rather, he was an alternate. As others were removed from the flight for various reasons, he moved up the list and was assigned to the flight."

Cerna continued, "The manifest did not indicate that Abrego-Garcia should not be removed. Through administrative error, Abrego-Garcia was removed from the United States to El Salvador. This was an oversight, and the removal was carried out in good faith based on the existence of a final order of removal and Abrego-Garcia's purported membership in MS-13."

Now that the Trump administration has admitted he was deported because of an "administrative error," the Supreme Court has intervened to support a district court order to "facilitate and effectuate" his return to the US.

On Thursday (April 10) the Court delivered a unanimous 9-0 decision refusing to obstruct the lower court's directive to the administration, which now requires Abrego Garcia to be freed from El Salvador detention and "to guarantee his case receives treatment identical to what would have occurred had he not been incorrectly deported." Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, an attorney representing Abrego Garcia, proclaimed in a statement that "the rule of law triumphed," further stating: "The Supreme Court maintained the district judge's ruling that the government must return Kilmar home." The matter will now go back to the trial court as the justices did not establish any timeframe for the administration regarding when the individual should be brought back to the US.