Northwestern experts on SCOTUS ordering Trump administration to return wrongfully deported Maryland man
‘U.S. cannot credibly claim it is unable to organize a flight to Washington, D.C., for someone who desperately wants to return home,’ expert says
CHICAGO --- The U.S. Supreme Court has left in place an order by a federal judge in Maryland that instructed the Trump administration to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was wrongfully sent to a El Salvadoran maximum-security prison, to the United States after the administration admitted to an “administrative error.”
Northwestern immigration experts, Jackie Stevens and Kathleen M. Vannucci, are available to speak with media.
Jacqueline Stevens is a professor of political science and the founding director of the Deportation Research Clinic at the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs for Northwestern University.
QUOTE FROM PROFESSOR STEVENS:
“The Supreme Court last night stated that the removal of an individual to an El Salvador prison in defiance of a U.S. statute and a federal court order was ‘illegal.’ The remand to the district court to clarify the steps required for the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the United States — consistent with the historical deference to the Executive Branch for foreign policy —should be no barrier to his prompt return. The district court’s order can be accommodated by the Trump administration using official channels to affect the return of one person they’ve illegally taken to El Salvador. The court is not ordering the federal government to invade or declare war on El Salvador or otherwise effect a policy beyond its normal executive operations. A federal government that regularly extradites criminals from foreign countries attempting to evade punishment by the U.S. cannot credibly claim it is unable to organize a flight to Washington, D.C., for someone who desperately wants to return home.”
To set up an interview with Professor Stevens, contact Stephanie Kulke at stephanie.kulke@northwestern.edu.
Kathleen M. Vannucci is an adjunct professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and a nationally recognized immigration attorney in Chicago. Her practice focuses on family-based immigration, deportation/exclusion/removal proceedings, citizenship and naturalization and representing minors in special immigrant juvenile status cases.
To set up an interview with Professor Vannucci, contact Shanice Harris at shanice.harris@northwestern.edu.