Trump DOJ tells courts to pound sand, not their place to order MS-13 member back to US

An Obama judge ordered the Trump administration on April 4 to bring a deported MS-13 member — found by more than one immigration court to be a "danger to the community" — back to the United States. Days later, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the lower court's ruling in part, noting that the administration must "facilitate" Kilmar Abrego Garcia's return.

The Trump administration, ever defiant, effectively told the federal courts to pound sand, which is for the best because Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said Monday that he does not intend to release Abrego Garcia.

Attorneys for the government indicated in a Sunday filing that while the high court had instructed the Trump administration to "facilitate" Abrego Garcia's return, "reading 'facilitate' as requiring something more than domestic measures would not only flout the Supreme Court's order, but also violate the separation of powers."

The Supreme Court previously recognized that some of the language in U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis' order was "unclear, and may exceed the District Court's authority," adding that the lesser court "should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs."

'They've done nothing.'

The attorneys for the government suggested in their Sunday filing that this deference on foreign policy matters should be more or less total, noting, "The federal courts have no authority to direct the Executive Branch to conduct foreign relations in a particular way, or engage with a foreign sovereign in a given manner."

"That is the 'exclusive power of the President as the sole organ of the federal government in the field of international relations,'" continued the government lawyers. "Such power is 'conclusive and preclusive,' and beyond the reach of the federal courts' equitable authority."

The plaintiffs in the case want the Trump administration to issue demands to the Salvadoran government and send American personnel to a foreign nation and an aircraft into a foreign nation's airspace to recover a citizen of that nation.

"All of those requested orders involve interactions with a foreign sovereign — and potential violations of that sovereignty," said the government lawyers. "A federal court cannot compel the Executive Branch to engage in any mandated act of diplomacy or incursion upon the sovereignty of another nation."

The Hill reported that Xinis was enraged Friday upon learning of the administration's continued refusal to comply with her order.

"Have they done anything?" the vexed Obama judge asked Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign.

"Your honor, I don't have personal knowledge," said Ensign.

"OK, so they've done nothing," said Xinis.

Michael Kozak, senior bureau official in the State Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, confirmed in a sworn statement Saturday that Abrego Garcia "is currently being held in the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador. He is alive and secure in that facility. He is detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador."

Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, stole into the U.S. illegally and without inspection in 2011.

He was summoned in March 2019 to appear in removal hearings. During a bond hearing, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement revealed that a confidential informant flagged Abrego Garcia as an active member of the terrorist organization Mara Salvatrucha. The illegal alien's bond was denied, with the court finding he "was a danger to the community."

The following month, Abrego Garcia appealed the ruling to the Board of Immigration Appeals but was once again recognized as a gang member as well as a flight risk.

The judge stated, "The fact that a 'past, proven, and reliable source of information' verified the Respondent's gang membership, rank, and gang name is sufficient to support that the Respondent is a gang member, and the Respondent has failed to present evidence to rebut that assertion."

Abrego Garcia's lawyers maintain that the gang label is false.

Although found removable, Abrego Garcia managed to secure a form of relief called withholding of removal in October 2019.

As a result, he avoided removal until March 12, when ICE agents in Baltimore notified Abrego Garcia that his "status has changed," then arrested him.

Government attorneys indicated that after his initial detention, the illegal alien was questioned about his gang affiliations, transferred to a detention center in Texas, then removed to El Salvador.

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