‘Absurdly compressed, mandatory deadline’: Chief Justice John Roberts freezes order to return alleged MS-13 gangster
Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily halted an order directing the Trump administration to bring an alleged MS-13 gang member back into the country.
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court earlier Monday to block an order directing officials to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported in March to El Salvador, back to the United States by 11:59 p.m.
BREAKING: Chief Justice John Roberts has BLOCKED the rogue activist judge who demanded the Trump Administration return MS-13 terrorist Kilmar Garcia to the United States by tonight. pic.twitter.com/PrFXW7pXPE
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) April 7, 2025
“The United States cannot guarantee success in sensitive international negotiations in advance, least of all when a court imposes an absurdly compressed, mandatory deadline that vastly complicates the give-and-take of foreign-relations negotiations,” the administration wrote Tuesday in its emergency application. “The United States does not control the sovereign nation of El Salvador, nor can it compel El Salvador to follow a federal judge’s bidding.”
Roberts requested a response to the administration’s application by Tuesday at 5 p.m.
#BREAKING: Chief Justice John Roberts BLOCKS the activist judge forced-return of alleged MS-13 member Kilmar Garcia tonight by the Trump administration – POLITICO
A judge ordered the Trump admin bring him back from El Salvador.
He’s staying there. pic.twitter.com/l8jefjiHlo
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 7, 2025
“Abrego Garcia has never been charged with a crime, in any country,” Abrego Garcia’s attorneys wrote in a filing Monday. “He is not wanted by the Government of El Salvador. He sits in a foreign prison solely at the behest of the United States, as the product of a Kafka-esque mistake.”
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, an Obama appointee, ordered the Trump administration on Friday to bring Abrego Garcia back. The administration acknowledges he was deported in error but maintains that he is a member of the foreign terrorist organization MS-13 who should not be allowed in the country.
Abrego Garcia illegally entered the United States in 2011 and later married Jennifer Vasquez Sura, an American citizen with whom he has a child, according to court records.
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