A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected the Trump administration\u2019s emergency request to block a judge\u2019s order requiring the U.S. government to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador with a violent criminal record and suspected gang affiliations.<\/p>\n
Garcia was deported last month to the high-security \u201cTerrorism Confinement Center\u201d (CECOT) in El Salvador. The appeals court ruling allows the lower court\u2019s<\/p>\n
The case centers on Abrego Garcia, a deported \u201cMaryland man,\u201d whose return was mandated by a district judge following a recent Supreme Court ruling. The Department of Justice had asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to overturn the order, but the court declined to do so.<\/p>\n
The three-judge panel consisted of Judge Harvie Wilkinson, a Reagan appointee, Judge Robert King, appointed by President Bill Clinton, and Judge Stephanie Thacker, appointed by President Barack Obama. In the court\u2019s opinion, Wilkinson repeatedly referred to Abrego Garcia as a \u201cresident,\u201d even though Abrego Garcia is not a lawful U.S. resident, Fox News\u00a0reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order,\u201d Wilkinson wrote. \u201cThis should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.\u201d<\/p>\n Court documents and police records reveal that Abrego Garcia has a documented history of domestic violence, including multiple instances of physically abusing his wife. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has also identified him as an MS-13 gang member, known by the street name \u201cChele,\u201d Fox noted.<\/p>\n The court called the DOJ\u2019s request \u201cextraordinary and premature,\u201d stating it would not intervene in the district judge\u2019s efforts to implement the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling. Attorney General Pam Bondi emphasized that Abrego Garcia would not be permitted to reenter the U.S. unless El Salvador made the decision to release him.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is not coming back to our country,\u201d she said earlier this week.<\/p>\n