The Supreme Court on Monday temporarily paused a lower court’s midnight deadline requiring the Trump administration to return a man mistakenly deported to El Salvador.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was sent to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison on March 15 despite a 2019 court order protecting him from being deported to his home country.
The Justice Department chalked Abrego Garcia’s deportation up to “an administrative error,” but the government has resisted calls for his return, arguing that it could not order a foreign nation to return him and that U.S. courts do not have jurisdiction to seek his release because he is no longer in U.S. custody.
Now, the Supreme Court is considering the case—but is letting Abrego Garcia wait in El Salvador as it does so.
Chief Justice John Roberts granted an “administrative stay” to extend the previous court-imposed deadline for Abrego Garcia’s return. No new deadline has been set.
Roberts’ decision, while aimed at giving the court time to consider the case, is stoking fears and conspiracies among critics of Trump’s hardline immigration policies.
“Trump is fighting too hard to keep from having to return Garcia. Why? Because he can’t. That man is dead, I believe that 100%,” one person speculated on X. “He’s looking to the courts for an out. He wants SCOTUS to rule in his favor so he can escape accountability for sending an innocent man to his death…”
There is no evidence supporting claims that Garcia is not alive and his lawyers and family have not voiced concern about that possibility.
But that isn’t stopping some people from worrying online.
“I’m watching Maddow and this guy saying ‘it’s not like it’s impossible’ to return the wrongly deported migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia… well, it’s impossible if he’s already dead,” echoed another commenter. “Can anyone confirm that this guy is still alive?”
“So he’s DEAD. Kilmar Abrego Garcia is DEAD,” claimed another popular post in response to the Supreme Court ruling.
“Demand proof of life from the government that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is alive,” encouraged someone else.
Abrego Garcia has no criminal record and the Trump administration is not arguing that he does.
Instead, the administration claims Abrego Garcia is a “danger to the community” and a member of the MS-13 gang.
His lawyers say the accusation of having a gang affiliation is false and stems from “flimsy evidence” from a confidential informant after he was arrested in 2019 while seeking construction work outside a Home Depot.
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