Supreme Court tells govt to ‘facilitate’ migrant’s return

Deportation blamed on ‘admin error’

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The Trump administration suffered a setback in a closely watched immigration case on Thursday, as the US Supreme Court ordered itto “facilitate” the return of a wrongly deported Salvadoran migrant.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, was living in the eastern state of Maryland until he became one of more than 200 people sent to a prison in El Salvador last month as part of Republican President Donald Trump's crackdown on undocumented migrants.

Most of the deportees were suspected members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration has declared a foreign terrorist organisation.

Justice Department lawyers later admitted that Mr Abrego Garcia — who is married to a US citizen — was deported due to an “administrative error’

The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the government to “‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia's release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador’, the conservative-majority court said in its unsigned ruling.