Trump, Abrego Garcia and the Courts - WSJ Editorial
Does President Trump want to force a showdown at the Supreme Court over executive power and the judiciary? That’s the way it looks from the way the Administration is handling the case of deportee Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. Last week the Court tried to split the baby in a standoff between a federal judge and the Justice Department over the El Salvadoran who was deported with some 200 gang members. Judge Paula Xinis had instructed the White House to “facilitate” Mr. Abrego Garcia’s return, and the Supreme Court agreed.
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Invitation not taken. The judge on Friday demanded an immediate Administration report, and now the White House seems to have decided it can do a legal dance to claim it doesn’t need to facilitate anything. That was clear from the Kabuki theater Monday when Mr. Trump appeared in the Oval Office with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. Asked if he could return Mr. Abrego Garcia, Mr. Bukele said, “How can I return him to the United States? . . . I smuggle him into the United States or what do I do? . . . The question is preposterous.”
Mr. Trump sat there smiling as if he knew he’d been handed a way to duck the command of the federal courts. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Administration understands Judge Xinis’s instruction to “facilitate” to mean merely that “if El Salvador wants to return him . . . we would facilitate it, meaning provide a plane.”
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The larger problem is that Mr. Abrego Garcia was deported without due process. The Administration first said he was sent to the Salvadorean mega prison because of an “administrative error,” but it has since suspended the staff attorney who made that court filing. Mr. Abrego Garcia “was not mistakenly sent to El Salvador. He is an illegal alien from El Salvador,” White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told Fox News. “In 2019 he was ordered deported. He [has] a final removal order from the United States. These are things that no one disputes. Where is he from? El Salvador. Where is he a resident and citizen of? El Salvador. Is he here illegally? Yes. Does he have a deportation order? Yes.”
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Mr. Trump would be wise to settle all of this by quietly asking Mr. Bukele to return Mr. Abrego Garcia, who has a family in the U.S. But the President may be bloody-minded enough that he wants to show the judiciary who’s boss. If this case does become a judicial showdown, Mr. Trump may assert his Article II powers not to return Mr. Abrego Garcia, and the Supreme Court will be reluctant to disagree. But Mr. Trump would be smarter to play the long game. He has many, much bigger issues than the fate of one man that will come before the Supreme Court. By taunting the judiciary in this manner he is inviting a rebuke on cases that carry far greater stakes.
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-abrego-garcia-deportation-el-salvador-nayib-bukele-supreme-court-5b3464f4?st=216qsa&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
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The claim about MS-13 appears to be bogus and would not stand up in court
Link to tweet
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/abrego-garcia-and-ms-13--what-do-we-know
This article explores the source of the administration’s claim about Abrego Garcia’s membership in MS-13 and its credibility, both on its face and in the context of the other information known about this individual.....
Abrego Garcia’s lawyer later tried to obtain more information about the allegations ICE had made at the bail hearing, according to the complaint. He discovered that the Prince George’s Police Department had no incident report for the arrest, and the Hyattsville City Police Department’s report mentioned only the other three men arrested—not Abrego Garcia.
Then the complaint adds yet another disturbing detail:
His attorney also contacted the [Prince George’s Police Department] Inspector General requesting to speak to the detective who authored the GFIS sheet, but was informed that the detective had been suspended. A request to speak to other officers in the Gang Unit was declined.
In the recent Maryland federal court litigation, the government has not contested, through introduction of evidence, any of the specific accusations of Abrego Garcia’s complaint. It has only, in conclusory fashion, continued to cling to Judge Kessler’s finding that Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 member. (Kessler’s bond decision was later upheld on administrative appeal in a perfunctory two-page opinion.).....
Shortly after he won “withholding of removal” status, Abrego Garcia was released to return home. Evidently, no one saw him as presenting any danger to the community anymore.
Since then, once a year, Abrego Garcia has “checked in” with immigration officials. This is the standard procedure required of individuals with his status—removable, but with removal “withheld” from their country of origin. Abrego Garcia’s last routine check-in occurred on Jan. 2 of this year, without incident.
The trump DOJ does not want to have to defend these claims in a real court hearing