Appeals court rejects Trump request in Kilmar Abrego Garcia case, citing due process concerns
The administration is testing the bounds of existing law. A judge in Thursday’s ruling said officials were taking action “without the semblance of due process.”
A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected a bid by the Trump administration to block an order directing it to facilitate the return of a mistakenly deported man, saying it was trying to claim “a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process.”
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia amid accusations that the administration has been giving short shrift to deportees’ due process rights, and after President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have complained those protections are hampering their efforts at mass deportations.
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The administration is challenging a judge’s order that it “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia, who the Justice Department has acknowledged should not have been sent to a prison in his native El Salvador because of an immigration judge’s 2019 order barring such action.
It’s part of a larger running battle between the Trump administration and the courts. The administration has stretched existing law with new executive orders and novel legal theories, and a number of federal courts have acted to rein it in — with Trump and allies then firing back in the court of public opinion, accusing the judges of overstepping their authority.
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