On Thursday, the Supreme Court issued a ruling with an unmistakable message: the Trump administration must follow the law and return Maryland dad Kilmar Abrego García back home.
In the decision, the majority stated that the administration must “facilitate and effectuate” the return of Abrego García, who was disappeared by U.S. officials to an El Salvador mega-prison last month despite previously having received protections from a federal judge. Following the ruling, Maryland Judge Paula Xinis – who earlier this month ordered his immediate return in a ruling that the administration has fought all the way to the Supreme Court – instructed U.S. officials to then “take all available steps to facilitate the return of Abrego García to the United States as soon as possible,” and ordered a status report and hearing for the next day.
But during that hearing Friday, it became clear that Trump administration lawyers only intended “to delay and obfuscate – and to defy the rule of law and the ruling by the Supreme Court,” as America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas reacted. “It was another shocking, though not surprising, display of their disdain for our Constitution. As Judge Xinis wrote, their excuse for delay ‘blinks at reality.’”
It must be added agony for Abrego García’s family. During a Wednesday press event hosted by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in Washington, D.C, his wife had just one plea: bring her husband home.
“It’s been 28 days since I last saw my husband,” Jennifer Vasquez Sura, a U.S. citizen, said as she was flanked by Hispanic Caucus members and immigrant advocacy leaders from CASA. “Since his children hugged him, since his mother has kissed him, since his brother has talked to him.” Advocates and lawmakers surrounding Vasquez Sura held signs reading “Unlawfully Taken & Disappeared” and “BRING KILMAR HOME”.
But despite the administration ignoring the dad’s due process rights and fully admitting that he was wrongfully purged to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), the administration refuses to immediately return him, including fighting a federal judge’s order and taking their cruel fight all the way to the Supreme Court. Recent reporting has revealed that as many as 90% of the men purged to the mega-prison have no criminal record at all.
“If you can hear me, I’m still fighting for you — your brother, your mother, your children,” Vasquez Sura continued during the press event. “We’re still fighting for you, and we’re not gonna give up hope.” She also urged the courts to “do the right thing. History will always remember you.” Watch a portion of her remarks below and the event in full here.
Baltimore Post-Examiner reports on the press event:
Rep. Juan Vargas, D-California, thanked Vasquez Sura for her tears, saying her words and emotions cut to the heart of a wider national crisis.
“Your tears were joined with the tears of many people in my district in San Diego, and they form a stream. And throughout this country, they form a river, a river appears because of what’s happening to families,” Vargas said.
He compared Abrego Garcia’s disappearance to his own experiences during the 1980s in El Salvador as a Jesuit, when violence often led to people vanishing without a trace.
“I never thought that something like that would happen in my own country, where masked people that work for the government would come abduct people off the street,” he said.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, echoed that concern, saying the Trump administration is trying to wash its hands of what happens after deportation.
“They’re framing us to believe that the U.S. government can pick somebody up off the street, with no due process, ship them to El Salvador — and that’s the end of our story,” Raskin told reporters after the press conference. “We can’t accept that.”
In an April 9 letter to Trump, Hispanic Caucus members called the Trump administration’s actions “wholly unacceptable,” writing that the dad’s abduction has not only disrupted the lives of his U.S. citizen wife and children, “but also undermines the very foundations of our nation’s commitment to justice and due process.” In recent days, the Trump administration has issued a dire threat against the freedoms of all Americans by raising the idea of sending U.S. citizens to El Salvador.
“Every individual in our country is guaranteed the right to a fair hearing —a cornerstone of the Constitution and our legal system,” Hispanic Caucus members wrote in their letter. “By depriving Mr. Abrego Garcia of this right, the administration has not only inflicted irreparable harm on him but has also set a dangerous precedent that weakens the trust American families place in our immigration system.”
Others targeted by the Trump administration include Andry Hernandez Romero, a makeup artist who fled to America after facing persecution in Venezuela, only to also be disappeared to CECOT. “Our client, who was in the middle of seeking asylum, just disappeared,” said attorney Lindsay Toczylowski. “One day he was there, and the next day we’re supposed to have court, and he wasn’t brought to court.” The reason? An innocuous set of tattoos – crowns on each wrist, with the names of his parents underneath – on his wrists.
In her remarks from the House floor, Rep. Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) warned that if the administration can deny due process for someone, “it can be denied for you too. If anyone can be snatched off the streets, detained, and deported without due process, it can happen to you too.”
While White House officials like Stephen Miller have claimed they have no control over the men in El Salvador, which is absurd, the President of El Salvador will be at the White House next week. Trump could – and should – tell him to bring these men with him. He won’t, of course. But, the visit does prove that there is a close relationship and it’s very hard to imagine that the President of El Salvador would deny a request from the President of the United States.
