Trump administration argues judge cannot order return of man mistakenly deported to El Salvador

Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia of Maryland, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, speaks during a news conference at CASA's Multicultural Center in Hyattsville, Md. on Friday. Credit: AP/Jose Luis Magana
The U.S. Justice Department told an appeals court Saturday that a judge did not have the authority to order the Trump administration to broker the return of a Maryland man who was mistakenly sent to a notorious El Salvador prison, and it suspended a government lawyer who admitted in court that the deportation was an error.
The government's attorneys asked the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to pause a Friday ruling by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who ordered the administration to “facilitate and effectuate” Kilmar Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S. by late Monday night.
“A judicial order that forces the Executive to engage with a foreign power in a certain way, let alone compel a certain action by a foreign sovereign, is constitutionally intolerable,” they wrote.
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