In a unanimous decision authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court ruled in Noem v. Abrego Garcia that the government must "facilitate" the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador to the United States. The Court left in place the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland's order directing the government to return him, affirming that his deportation was unlawful and that his case must be handled as it would have been had he not been improperly removed. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals had already affirmed the district court ruling.
The unanimous 9-0 decision was a landmark ruling on the limits of executive deportation power — the entire Court, including all Trump appointees, agreed the government could not deport a person with legal protection and then wash its hands of the consequences. The ruling established that courts retain the authority to order the executive branch to take affirmative steps to undo unlawful deportations.
Despite the ruling, the administration delayed compliance for weeks. Abrego Garcia was not returned to the United States until June 6, 2025 — nearly two months after the Supreme Court order. Upon return, the DOJ announced he had been indicted in Tennessee on charges of unlawful transportation of illegal aliens, in what critics characterized as retaliatory prosecution. He was released on December 11, 2025, by federal court order, but the government then sought to deport him again — to Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana, and Liberia — rather than to Costa Rica, the one country he agreed to go to.