House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. on Tuesday said that the Supreme Court should consider holding the Trump administration in contempt over its deportation of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadorian illegal migrant and former Maryland resident.
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a lower court’s decision to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia from an El Salvador prison where federal officials sent hundreds of suspected criminals and gang members last month.
“The Supreme Court has made clear that Mr. Abrego Garcia should not have been deported,” Jeffries said at a Tuesday press conference on Democrats’ upcoming “Save Social Security Day of Action” to oppose what he claims will be cuts to social security.
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“In fact, the Trump administration has acknowledged that fact and so they need to comply with the Supreme Court’s directive or the Supreme Court needs to enforce its order aggressively, which should include contempt.”
The Supreme Court acknowledges that Abrego Garcia was subject to a 2019 withholding order forbidding his removal to El Salvador, and that the removal to El Salvador was “therefore illegal.” The Court stressed that the government must facilitate his release from custody in El Salvador and treat his case as if he were never deported.
One immigration judge in 2019 found that Garcia had not sufficiently refuted evidence of MS-13 affiliation and was thus removable to anywhere other than El Salvador because of a threat from a rival gang, this is called a withholding order.
The Trump administration has faced criticism from Democrats, left-wing media and human rights advocates for sending Abrego Garcia back to his home country. Trump officials initially acknowledged his removal was due to an “administrative error.”
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White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller on Monday said that two courts found Abrego Garcia to be an MS-13 gang member, and he was deported after Trump declared the violent gang a terrorist organization.
Miller said that when Trump declared MS-13 a terrorist organization, Abrego Garcia was no longer eligible for any form of immigration relief in the United States.
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Miller said that Abrego Garcia had an outstanding deportation order, meaning he wasn’t even allowed to be present in the U.S. and had to be removed because of the foreign terrorist designation.
Abrego Garcia is married to a U.S. citizen, and they are raising three children.
Jeffries, meanwhile, added that he was supporting the efforts of Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who is trying to meet with El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele while he is here in the country. Van Hollen is trying to get Abrego Garcia sent back to the U.S.
Bukele met with Trump at the White House on Monday for a bilateral summit focused largely on immigration.
“I support the efforts and leadership of Senator Chris Van Hollen,” Jeffries said. “The president should accept that meeting request and have a real discussion as to when Mr. Abrego Garcia is going to be returned to his family in the United States of America.”
Van Hollen said he also wants to see the Trump administration held in contempt.
“It’s absolutely unjust and illegal to have this Marylander detained one more day in a notorious prison in El Salvador,” Van Hollen said, per WBAL-TV.
“I saw that the families, the lawyers, have asked that the administration lawyers be held in contempt, and I think that’s an absolutely appropriate move to take right now. They’re absolutely snubbing their nose at the courts right now, including the Supreme Court.”
Fox News’ Kerri Urbahn contributed to this report.
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