Trump Vows to Obey Supreme Court Order on Deported Salvadoran Man

The president’s comments were made the day after justices ruled that the deported individual must be returned to the United States.

President Donald Trump speaks to the media aboard Air Force One on the way to Palm Beach International Airport, West Palm Beach, Fla., on April 11, 2025. Nathan Howard/Reuters

President Donald Trump said on April 11 he will honor a Supreme Court order requiring the government to extract a Salvadoran citizen from his home country after the United States mistakenly deported him there.

When asked about the court ruling, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One: “If the Supreme Court said bring somebody back, I would do that.”

“I respect the Supreme Court,” the president added.

The federal government removed illegal immigrant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia from the United States to El Salvador on March 15. He is now detained at the Center for Terrorism Confinement, a maximum security prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, the Supreme Court noted in its April 10 opinion. The opinion was unsigned. No justices dissented.

The Trump administration agreed a month ago to pay El Salvador $6 million to detain about 300 alleged members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang and two alleged members of the MS-13 gang in its prisons for one year. The United States has designated both criminal gangs as foreign terrorist organizations.

The government has acknowledged that Abrego Garcia was subject to a withholding order and that his deportation took place because of an “administrative error.” The government has also acknowledged that his removal to El Salvador was “illegal,” the court said.

After an immigration judge signs a deportation order, he then has discretion to issue an order withholding removal, which prevents the government from moving forward with the deportation. The removal of the person is said to be withheld, leaving the individual in a kind of legal limbo.

At the same time, the government said that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang. Returning him to the United States would place the public in danger, the government says, according to the Supreme Court.

Abrego Garcia denies being a member of MS-13 and has said that he “has lived safely in the United States with his family for a decade and has never been charged with a crime,” the court said.

On April 4, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland ordered the government to “facilitate and effectuate the return of [Abrego Garcia] to the United States by no later than 11:59 p.m. on Monday, April 7,” according to the high court.

On April 7, U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer urged the Supreme Court to vacate the judge’s order, arguing it would interfere with the president’s authority to manage the nation’s foreign relations.

Xinis “ordered unprecedented relief: dictating to the United States that it must not only negotiate with a foreign country to return an enemy alien on foreign soil, but also succeed by 11:59 p.m. tonight,” Sauer wrote.

Later the same day, Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily stayed the order to give the justices time to consider the case.

Three days later in the April 10 opinion, the Supreme Court said that although the district court’s deadline has passed, the rest of its order is still in effect, and returned the case to that court for clarification.

“The 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 opinion said.

Meanwhile, on April 11, Xinis ordered the Trump administration to provide daily updates on Abrego Garcia’s situation starting on April 12.

At the April 11 hearing, when Xinis asked Department of Justice attorney Drew Ensign where Abrego Garcia was, Ensign said he didn’t possess that information. The lawyer also declined to offer additional information on what the government intends to do to bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States.

The judge told Ensign it was “extremely troubling” that there was no evidence available as to Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts.

T.J. Mascaro and Sam Dorman contributed to this report.