Three U.S. Supreme Court Justices have cautioned the Trump administration against attempting to deport people, including U.S. citizens, without the courts weighing in.
The message was contained in the Supreme Court’s ruling on Thursday that the government must facilitate the return to the United States of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man mistakenly taken to El Salvador.
Government lawyers had argued U.S. courts could not take action once a deportee crossed an international border.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday also said President Donald Trump had floated the idea of deporting U.S. citizens with criminal records “if there is a legal pathway.”
However, three liberal justices pushed back in a statement accompanying Thursday’s ruling on Abrego Garcia.
“The Government’s argument, moreover, implies that it could deport and incarcerate any person, including U. S. citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene,” wrote Justices Sonia Sotomayorr, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson in a statement released with the Abrego Garcia ruling. “That view refutes itself.”
Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment.
Why It Matters
President Trump’s mass deportation efforts have raised questions about people’s right to remain in the U.S.
Government efforts to deport two legal permanent U.S. residents—student activists Mahmoud Khalil and Yunseo Chung—indicated the adminstration’s crackdown was targeting immigrants farther along in their paths to citizenship. Both deportation efforts were blocked by the courts.
Leavitt’s comments suggested the crackdown could even extend to U.S. citizens.
The U.S. Supreme Court is shown at dusk on June 28, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Getty/Drew Angerer
What To Know
On Sunday, President Trump told reporters on Air Force One that “we have some horrible criminals, American grown, born,” and that he is “all for” sending them to prisons in El Salvador. “I don’t know what the law says on that,” he added.
Asked about Trump’s remarks, Leavitt said on Tuesday: “You’re referring to the president’s idea for American citizens to be potentially deported. These would be heinous, violent criminals who have broken our nation’s laws repeatedly. These are violent repeat offenders in American streets.”
“The president has said, if it’s legal, right, if there is a legal pathway to do that, he’s not sure, we’re not sure, if there is. It’s an idea he has simply floated and has discussed in an effort of transparency.”
A day earlier, Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a warning about that very possibility. In a dissent from a Supreme Court ruling that granted emergency relief to the government in a deportation case, she wrote that the administration’s legal position could allow for a scenario in which “not only noncitizens but also United States citizens could be taken off the streets, forced onto planes, and confined to foreign prisons with no opportunity for redress if judicial review is denied unlawfully before removal.”
Constitutional scholars wrote to the Supreme Court that if the government’s argument were accepted, the “Executive Branch would possess a shuddering degree of power — power that the President could wield in extreme and extraordinary ways, including against American citizens that the President simply disfavors.”
Sotomayor’s statement, approved by Kagan and Jackson, on Thursday again sought to ward of such attempts.
Supreme Court Rules on El Salvador Deportation
The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia.
The decision, which featured no dissents, even from the most Trump-aligned justices, on Thursday backed U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis’ order last week, following a lawsuit filed by his family challenging the legality of his deportation.
Abrego Garcia’s case is the most recent in a series of legal challenges to Trump‘s immigration policies and actions. The administration contends that once deported, the America’s highest court no longer holds jurisdiction over him.
Abrego Garcia, 29, had lived in Maryland for nearly 15 years after fleeing gang violence in El Salvador. In 2019, he was granted protection from deportation due to credible fears of persecution. However, in March 2025, he was erroneously deported amid a mass operation targeting alleged gang members. The administration later acknowledged this as an “administrative error.”
The Court’s order requires the government to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from custody at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador, a notorious super prison.
The Supreme Court said, “The [district court] order properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”
“The intended scope of the term ‘effectuate’ in the District Court’s order is, however, unclear, and may exceed the District Court’s authority,” the Supreme Court said.
“The District Court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs,” the ruling said.
The Supreme Court ordered that the administration “should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.”
Xinis revised her order to align with the Supreme Court’s decision, removing the word “effectuate” from the original directive.
“To this end, the Court hereby amends this Order to Direct that Defendants take all available steps to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States as soon as possible,” Xinis wrote.
Justice Department lawyers, in a Supreme Court brief, argued that the judge’s order—by requiring the Trump administration to “effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return—improperly encroached on presidential authority over foreign relations, violating the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers between the judicial and executive branches.
“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,” DOJ lawyers wrote.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant who has lived in Maryland since arriving in the U.S. around 2011 and has held a work permit since 2019, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on March 12. He was subsequently placed on a flight to El Salvador’s CECOT prison on March 15, following what an ICE official described as an “administrative error.”
He is married to a U.S. citizen, and together they are raising their U.S. citizen child, along with his wife’s two children from a previous relationship. According to his lawyers, he has never been charged with or convicted of any crime. They have also denied the Justice Department’s claim that he is a member of the criminal gang MS-13.
What People Are Saying
Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in a statement: “To this day, the government has cited no basis in law for Abrego Garcia’s warrantless arrest, his removal to El Salvador, or his confinement in a Salvadoran prison. Nor could it.”
Maryland Governor Wes Moore told Newsweek in a statement last week: “The federal government has admitted to making an error, and I urge them to correct it.”
What Happens Next
Xinis ordered the Trump administration to file by 9:30 a.m. ET Friday a declaration addressing “the current physical location and custodial status of Abrego Garcia, (2) what steps, if any, Defendants have taken to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s immediate return to the United States; and (3) what additional steps Defendants will take, and when, to facilitate his return.”
The administration has asked for an extension of time to review the Supreme Court’s order.
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