Due Process and the Abrego Garcia Case
Este artículo estará disponible en español en El Tiempo Latino.
The Supreme Court ruled on the evening of April 10 that the Trump administration must comply with a lower court’s order to “facilitate” the release from custody of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an immigrant who was deported without a hearing to a mega prison in El Salvador. The case underscores the issue of due process and what legal protections are afforded to noncitizens.
Here, we’ll explain what due process means, any limitations in its application to noncitizens, and the details of the Abrego Garcia case. In the process, we’ll fact-check some comments officials have made about the case.
The Trump administration, which has said that Abrego Garcia was accidentally deported due to an “administrative error,” has stalled on bringing him back despite court orders, arguing that U.S. agencies do “not have authority to forcibly extract an alien from the domestic custody of a foreign sovereign nation.” Abrego Garcia was among the more than 250 immigrants who were deported by the administration to El Salvador on March 15.
“That’s up to El Salvador, if they want to return him. That’s not up to us,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said during an Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on April 14. At the same meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized the diplomatic implications, saying, “The foreign policy of the United States is conducted by the President of the United States, not by a court.”
But the case highlights what some legal scholars see as an effort by the Trump administration to erode due process — or the constitutional right to contest an arrest by the government — and set a precedent for making people unreachable by imprisoning them outside of the U.S.
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Source: FactCheck.org