Although the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s order requiring the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia—a Maryland man wrongfully deported to El Salvador in March—the administration has only confirmed that he is “alive and secure” but still being held in a Salvadoran prison.
According to CBS News, Michael G. Kozak, a senior State Department official, provided the update via a filing that was submitted minutes after an April 12 deadline set by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis.
“It is my understanding based on official reporting from our Embassy in San Salvador that Abrego Garcia is currently being held in the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador,” Kozak wrote. “He is alive and secure in that facility. He is detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador.”
That language suggests the federal government could be using El Salvador’s sovereignty as a shield to avoid taking responsibility for an action the judge deemed “wholly illegal from the moment it happened.”
This position from the federal government was made possible by the Supreme Court cautioning Judge Xinis on April 10 to make her determination “with due regard for the deference owed to the executive branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”
The nation’s highest court also instructed the federal government to be prepared to share next steps with U.S. District Judge Xinis, writing in its ruling, “For its part, the Government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.”
On the day before the filing was submitted, an attorney for the government struggled to provide the judge with any information about Garcia’s location, which she responded to with an order that the administration disclose his “current physical location and custodial status” as well as “what steps, if any, Defendants have taken (and) will take, and when, to facilitate” the return of Garcia, which is the portion that Kozak failed to address.
According to MSNBC, Garcia’s lawyers petitioned the Supreme Court, the court whose opinion Trump has alleged that he respects, ahead of their decision, writing that it was the position of Garcia’s legal representation that the Court’s insistence on due process “underscores that Abrego Garcia — who was removed without reasonable notice or an opportunity to challenge his removal before it occurred, and in conceded violation of a court order prohibiting his removal to that country — must have a remedy for this constitutional violation.”
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