SCOTUS Orders Trump Admin To ‘Facilitate’ Return Of Abrego Garcia

[system1]

Originally published at: SCOTUS Orders Trump Admin To ‘Facilitate’ Return Of Abrego Garcia - TPM – Talking Points Memo

The Trump administration must “facilitate” the release of Kilmer Abrego Garcia, the man who was wrongly deported last month to a labor camp in El Salvador, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday. But the Court held short of ruling on how far the judiciary can go in mandating what efforts the government must take to…

[seamus42]

“Facilitate,” with no deadline? It may be an ideological win, but we’ll probably never see the poor man again. Without a deadline, it’ll be Schroedinger’s court order defiance.

[ealleniii]

When it’s about somebody’s life and liberty, the grade should not be based on effort.

[drriddle]

Morally, there was no other answer, though I would not have been surprised if the Republican SC justices found one anyways. This resets things, the district judge will tell the government to get him back and put immense pressure on them to do so. There’s a very good chance the government ignores her, so we might be looking at contempt proceedings sooner or later. But, really, they just want to make it appear that this is permanent in order to scare immigrants into self-deporting, so they will fight as hard as they can not to concede.

The SC is drawing a line though, people can’t be deported without opportunity for judicial review and people wrongly deported are supposed to be brought back. It could be a lot worse…it may still turn out that way, one of these cases will eventually end up in arguments for a real decision, and which one they pick for it will give an indication of how far they are willing to go down a road that could potentially deport US citizens.

[serendipitoussomnambulist]

Anyone know how much AP had to grovel, pay, or do to get back their press access? Did the elite law firms get a better deal because they bent over earlier?

[blandsten]

“Facilitate.” Words proven to scare the shit out of Trump and his “administration.”

Well done.

[josephebacon]

Now what happens when Trump defies the court?

[darcy]

That’s the real question, isn’t it.

[heart]

To our legal eagles here. Could the SCOTUS require regular reports on what is being done to facilitate his return? Facilitate is about as weak a word as they could have come up with. He’ll likely be dead before anything is done, if anything is ever actually done.

[txlawyer]

Fortunately, Kristi Noem’s photo op jaunt has already established that the trump admin can tell Bukele what to do in the prison.

[heart]

Do you think the Trump administration will do anything meaningful? I sure don’t.

[lastroth]

@system1

The Court found that the district court judge’s order demanding that the Trump administration return Abrego Garcia “properly requires the government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that this case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”

The decision does clearly direct the Trump administration to move to return Abrego Garcia, who was deported on March 15 after the government mistakenly ignored an immigration court order barring his removal.

The Courts better figure out how to make the Executive branch comply.

[fess]

@josephebacon

Now what happens when Trump defies the court?

They don’t actually have to defy anything. “Facilitate” could take weeks, even months or years. There may be some “deals” that have to happen. If he has visible injuries, they may need to heal before he could be moved and photographed by the press. If the man is already dead, they’ll need time to work out a story that tells the story of how ICE was right all along and his gang rivals killed him in jail, not ICE’s fault at all and probably the guy’s just desserts. This Wee Willie adjudication is highly flexible.

[lestatdelc]

mistakenly ignored

Bullshit.

[Vic_Bold_II]

A lot of mischief can happen after the District Court is cleared to “order” the return of Mr Abrego Garcia, like “not being located in the Salvadoran prison system” if and when the government “asks” for his return.
I mean, this crowd is perfectly capable of transmitting to El Salvador President Bukele that they “prefer” that Mr Abrego Garcia is said to have been “transferred, and his current location not immediately ascertained”, etc.
The odds of the victim actually returning to the States intact and unscathed are near-zero, IMHO.

[exspectator]

We attempted to facilitate the release, but unfortunately the release is not ours to effectuate. El Salvadoran authorities determined it was important to hold him for other reasons.

Also, check out this cool prisoner swap we did with Russia!

[darrtown]

Via ABC news…

DOJ terminates contract that provides legal support for migrants at detention centers

The Department of Justice has terminated the contract for legal orientation programs and other work intended to support migrants at detention centers and immigration courts, according to a notice of obtained by ABC News.

[grothert]

Do we know if he is alive?

[califdemdreamer]

@seamus42

but we’ll probably never see the poor man again. Without a deadline, it’ll be Schroedinger’s court order defiance.

If he’s even alive. Let’s be realistic. tRump will be like “we tried but he’s dead.”

[burningquestions]

I never thought a unanimous court decision could be so toothless.