Trump's deportation plan is back in action

This is not a drill...

The Supreme Court issued two consequential rulings late last Monday night. The first was in the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, in which Chief Justice Roberts halted a lower court’s deadline for the Trump administration to bring back a man it admits to have wrongly sent to El Salvador’s CECOT prison. This administrative stay was later vacated, with the full Court instructing the Trump administration to “be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps” to bring Abrego Garcia home. The District Court has also been directed to “clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”

More on that in a column I am publishing this week for The Hill. Stay tuned.

In the second case, Trump v. J.G.G., the 5-4 majority lifted a lower court’s temporary order that stopped the Trump administration from deporting individuals under the 1789 Alien Enemies Act. The majority also acknowledged that the government must give individuals due process before ripping them from their lives and putting them on a plane to a foreign supermax prison—something it should already know that is constitutionally required.

On Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the Trump Administration had sent ten more people to CECOT on Saturday.

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This newsletter unpacks the constitutional chaos. I hope you share it widely (and if you can, please consider upgrading to paid).

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This same majority is to blame for a lot of what’s happening in the country right now. Over the summer, it made presidents immune from any accountability for violating federal criminal laws while acting within the scope of their presidential duties in Trump v. U.S. This ruling undoubtedly emboldened Trump to wage wars on the institutions of government, the powers of Congress and the judiciary, the federal civil service, free speech, freedom of the press, and the post-World War II liberal international order.

As I explained in my latest column for Zeteo, democracy is not supposed to hinge on the sheer luck of having a ruler who happens to be benevolent. That’s why the Founders rejected the blueprint of unlimited monarchy under King George III when the Constitution was ratified in 1788.

What’s the background of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s case?

Abrego Garcia has resided in Beltsville, Maryland, with his wife and their three children for years. Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador and, according to a court filing, came to the United States “as a teenager to escape gang violence targeting his family.”

Abrego Garcia has never been charged with a crime.

In 2019, while seeking employment at a Home Depot in Hyattsville, Maryland, Abrego Garcia was approached by police officers who arrested him and three other men who were also looking for a job. Abrego Garcia was taken to the police station and questioned about his gang involvement. Abrego Garcia denied being a member of any gang but was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

The only evidence that the government produced at Abrego Garcia’s 2019 removal proceeding to support the allegation of his gang involvement was “that he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie; and that a confidential informant advised that he was an active member of MS-13 with the Westerns clique.” This “Westerns clique” is based in Brentwood, Long Island, in New York — somewhere Abrego Garcia has never lived.

In October of 2019, a judge granted Abrego Garcia withholding of removal, which essentially means he cannot leave the United States unless the judge executes his removal order. That never happened. He was sent to El Salvador anyway. (According to the American Immigration Council and National Immigrant Justice Center, he “cannot petition to bring family members to the United States and does not gain a path to citizenship.”)

On March 12, 2025, Abrego Garcia was pulled over by ICE officers and was falsely told that his “status has changed.” Court filings state that after several minutes passed, Abrego Garcia “was handcuffed and detained in one of several ICE vehicles on scene.”

Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Stefania Vasquez Sura, was told to be there within 10 minutes to get their five-year-old son, who was still sitting in the car. Vasquez Sura arrived and had a moment to speak with her husband before he was taken away with zero explanation as to why or where he was going.