Any Minute Now Her Statements Will No Longer Be Operative

Leavitt: Nothing will change the fact that Garcia will never be a Maryland father… The supreme court ruled unanimously that the president of the United States and secretary of state cannot be compelled to forcibly retrieve this citizen of El Salvador pic.twitter.com/ARR48bpLOT

— Acyn (@Acyn) April 16, 2025

From the courtroom:

And then the last one will be if she does, in fact, the district court judge hold them in contempt," Goodman continued. "I think one of the most important parts of the order that she gave this evening is she actually points to one of the ways in which the United States government seems to have control over the matter. She says it's inexplicable that Abrego Garcia is still being held in secret. And then she drops a footnote and cites the text that we do have from the written agreement with El Salvador that's been released by The Associated Press, because they obtained part of the agreement, which says that they'll be held in, held in CECOT, quote, 'pending the United States decision on their long-term disposition,' end quote."

"That's what the judge says, which is basically saying, you have much more authority, the United States government, to do something here, to do anything, take certain steps to facilitate his release, then," he added.

Van Hollen says that he asked the VP why El Salvador continues to hold Abrego Garcia even though he’s not charged with a crime and there’s no evidence that he’s MS-13.

“His answer was that the Trump administration is paying the government of El Salvador to keep him at CECOT” https://t.co/X7jIbzRStB

— Anna Bower (@AnnaBower) April 16, 2025

The courts don’t have to forcibly retrieve (that’s a new excuse, by the way. Guess they gave up on “facilitate”) Abrego Garcia. They just have to tell Rl Salvador to hand him over. After all, the U.S. is just paying for prison space “pending the United States decision on their long-term disposition.” The courts can certainly make that decision when the Administration has violated basic constitutional protections.