Supreme Court Freezes Order to Return Man From El Salvador Prison

Chief Justice John Roberts issued a temporary stay Monday blocking, for now, a lower court order that required the Trump administration to return by midnight a Maryland resident who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador last month.

Justice Roberts temporarily froze the lower court order from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who had ordered the Trump administration to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who, last month, was mistakenly sent to El Salvador, by 12 a.m. Tuesday.

The government has acknowledged that Abrego Garcia’s removal from the U.S. was an “administrative error.”

The filing from Roberts comes after the Trump administration appealed the lower court’s decision both to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and to the Supreme Court on Monday morning, in anticipation of the appellate court decision.

Judges on the Fourth Circuit voted unanimously earlier in the day to reject the Justice Department’s request for an administrative stay, clearing the way for the nation’s top court to intervene.

The eleventh-hour pause granted by Roberts gives the Trump administration additional time to comply with the court order requiring Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S.

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