The Supreme Court has just stepped in to correct a major mistake — ordering the Trump administration to help bring Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. after he was wrongly deported to El Salvador. The Maryland man remains in custody there, but now the highest court in the country has made it clear: he never should’ve been sent away in the first place.
In a short but clear decision issued Thursday, the court sided with a lower court judge who had already ruled that Abrego Garcia needed to be returned. According to the justices, the government must “facilitate” his release from detention in El Salvador and make sure his case is handled as if he had never been deported.
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That one word — facilitate — carries a lot of weight. It means the Trump administration now has to help get Abrego Garcia out of custody abroad and back to U.S. soil so that his case can be processed properly.
The decision is a rare win for people fighting deportation under the Trump-era policies that saw tough crackdowns and aggressive removals. But while the ruling is a big step, it doesn’t answer everything. The justices are sending the case back to the same district court judge who first ruled in Abrego Garcia’s favor, asking her to clarify a part of her original decision — while also being mindful of how much power the Executive Branch holds when it comes to international diplomacy.
In other words, yes, the court says the deportation was wrong. But now they want the lower court to clean up the details and make sure the fix respects how the federal government handles foreign relations.
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There’s been no comment so far from the White House about the order, and it’s unclear exactly how quickly the Trump administration will act on the directive. The case is also notable because it highlights how easily immigration enforcement decisions can go wrong — and how hard it is to fix them after the fact.
For now, Abrego Garcia is still sitting in custody in El Salvador, waiting to find out what comes next. But thanks to the Supreme Court, he at least has a shot at returning to the country he calls home — and having his case heard the way it should have been from the start.
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