Court Finds Trump Appeal Over Abrego Garcia 'Shocking'

The US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit needed little time on Thursday to reject the Trump administration's case for blocking a judge's orders to bring back the man who was illegally deported to a prison in El Salvador—while pointing out the clarity of the situation. "It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter. But in this case, it is not hard at all," the court said, per the Washington Post. "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." The vote on the three-judge panel was unanimous.

The Supreme Court had told the administration to "facilitate" the return of Kilmar Ábrego García to the US, and the Justice Department argued in a hearing earlier in the week that "facilitate" just means the government should let the man in if he gets to the US border somehow. The Trump administration also has said it's powerless to secure Ábrego García's release from another country. The appeals court was not impressed, saying Thursday that the administration "claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done," per the New York Times. "'Facilitate' is an active verb," the panel said, which does not "allow the government to do essentially nothing."

The administration's claim "should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear," Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote, per the AP. The judges "cling to the hope that it is not naïve to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital to the American ethos," the Republican appointee said. "This case presents their unique chance to vindicate that value and to summon the best that is within us while there is still time." Asked at the White House if Ábrego García deserves due process, President Trump would not say, deferring to his lawyers. "I have to do what they ask me to do," he said. (Administration officials stepped up their rhetoric on the issue.)