Federal Judge Bizarrely Orders Trump to Return a Deported MS-13 Gang Member to U.S.

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PULSE POINTS:

What Happened: A federal judge is ordering the Trump administration to return an illegal immigrant gang member who was deported to El Salvador to the United States.

👥 Who’s Involved: U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, President Donald J. Trump, El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, and federal immigration officials.

📍 Where & When: U.S. federal court on Friday, April 4.

💬 Key Quote: “You have an agreement with this facility where you’re paying the money to perform a certain service. It stands to reason that you can go to the payee and say, ‘We want the person back.’” — Judge Paula Xinis

⚠ Impact: The ruling represents a significant usurpation of executive branch authority in the United States and potentially infringes upon El Salvador’s sovereignty over its own citizens.

IN FULL:

U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis is ordering the Trump administration to arrange for an illegal immigrant MS-13 gang member who was deported to El Salvador to be returned to the United States by midnight on Monday. The bizarre and unprecedented ruling represents a significant usurpation of executive branch power by a federal court and appears to imply United States law takes precedence over El Salvador’s own sovereignty.

“You have an agreement with this facility where you’re paying the money to perform a certain service,” Judge Xinis said when issuing her ruling on Friday, adding: “It stands to reason that you can go to the payee and say, ‘We want the person back.’”

The case involves the recent deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran national and illegal immigrant who was ordered to be detained by a U.S. immigration judge due to his affiliation with the violent MS-13 gang, which made him a danger to the community. While the judge ordered Abrego Garcia to be removed from the United States in 2019, the gang member and illegal immigrant was able to secure a grant of withholding preventing his deportation to El Salvador after convincing the court that a rival gang in the country had threatened his life should he return.

However, as part of President Trump’s deportation agreement with the El Salvadoran government, Abrego Garcia—still under the protective order—was included among other dangerous illegal immigrants and flown to El Salvador to be held in the country’s CECOT facility. Consequently, Abrego Garcia filed a lawsuit arguing his removal was unlawful, asking that the U.S. courts intervene and order his return to the United States.

Federal officials have been forward in admitting that Abrego Garcia’s removal and deportation to his home country was in error and that the court-issued protective order had been accidentally violated. However, since he is an El Salvadoran national and currently in the custody of the El Salvadoran government, the Trump administration contends that U.S. courts lack jurisdiction, noting that issues of diplomacy are a constitutionally reserved power of the executive branch.

El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, in response to the U.S. court’s order, posted on X (formerly Twitter) a gif of an animated rabbit making an exaggerated face expressing confusion.

The post Federal Judge Bizarrely Orders Trump to Return a Deported MS-13 Gang Member to U.S. appeared first on The National Pulse.



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