The executive "will lose much from a public perception of its lawlessness," judge says
Photo: The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
US Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson has warned the administration of US President Donald Trump against its continued resistance to judicial decisions over the wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, reported Reuters.
As part of a three-judge panel based in Richmond, Virginia, Wilkinson upheld a judge’s order to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the US in appeals court. It also shot down the administration’s request to block US District Judge Paula Xinis’ probe into the government’s work to secure said return; Xinis had ordered US officials to present documents and to disclose under oath its actions in the matter.
On Tuesday, Xinis ordered U.S. officials to provide documents and answer questions under oath about what they had done to secure the return of Abrego Garcia, who was sent to El Salvador on March 15. The judge has also ordered the administration to facilitate his return.
The government had recognized that Abrego Garcia, who was sent to El Salvador on March 15, was deported erroneously.
In the panel’s unanimous opinion, it said it seemed Trump was aiming to weaken the public’s opinion of the judiciary with his persistent vilification of judges who did not decide in his favor. The panel conceded that Trump’s attempts could pay off but cautioned him that the crusade could work against him if the public doubted the president’s lawfulness.
“The executive will lose much from a public perception of its lawlessness,” Wilkinson wrote in the opinion, a snippet of which was published by Reuters. “We yet cling to the hope that it is not naïve to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital to the American ethos.”
In 2019, an immigration judge had protected Abrego Garcia from deportation on the grounds that he was likely to face gang persecution, as per court records. Attorney General Pam Bondi insisted on X that Abrego Garcia was a member of the street gang MS-13, but Abrego Garcia’s family and lawyers denied it.
Trump asserted last week in a statement published by Reuters that he was “elected to get rid of those criminals, to get them out of our country” and said he didn’t “see how judges can take that authority away from a president.”
The judge panel warned that the fallout from Trump’s claim regarding his right to deport individuals “without due process and in disregard of court orders” would extend beyond the Abrego Garcia case.
"What assurance will there be tomorrow that it will not deport American citizens and then disclaim responsibility to bring them home?" Wilkinson wrote, noting how Trump had suggested that US-born criminals could also be sent to El Salvado prisons. “And what assurance shall there be that the Executive will not train its broad discretionary powers upon its political enemies?”
George Washington University Law School professor Laura Dickinson said in a statement published by Reuters that the implications of Trump’s actions were “terrifying for American democracy.”
"It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter. But in this case, it is not hard at all. The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order," Wilkinson wrote.
Wilkinson was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan, and is of the Republican party.
