WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday said the Trump administration must work to bring back a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to prison in El Salvador, rejecting the administration’s emergency appeal.

The court acted in the case of a Salvadoran citizen, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who had an immigration court order preventing his deportation to his native country over fears he would face persecution from local gangs.

A federal district judge, Paula Xinis, had ordered Mr. Abrego Garcia, now being held in a Salvadoran prison, returned to America by midnight Monday.

“The order properly requires 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 court said in an unsigned order.

It comes after a string of rulings on the court’s emergency docket where the conservative majority has at least partially sided with President Trump amid a wave of lower court orders slowing the president’s sweeping agenda.

In Thursday’s case, Chief Justice Roberts had already pushed back Judge Xinis’s deadline. The justices also said that her order must now be clarified to make sure it doesn’t intrude into executive branch power over foreign affairs, since Mr. Abrego Garcia is being held abroad.

The court said the Trump administration should also be prepared to share what steps it has taken to try to get him back — and what more it could potentially do.

The administration claims Mr. Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang, though he has never been charged with or convicted of a crime. His attorneys said there is no evidence he was in MS-13.

The administration has conceded that it made a mistake in sending him to El Salvador, but argued that it no longer could do anything about it.

The assistant secretary for public affairs at the Homeland Security department, Tricia McLaughlin, said Thursday that the justices’ order for clarification from the lower court was a win for the administration. “We look forward to continuing to advance our position in this case,” she said.

A Justice Department spokesman said the court had “directly noted the deference owed to the Executive Branch” in foreign affairs.

An immigration judge had previously barred America from deporting Mr. Abrego Garcia to El Salvador in 2019, finding that he faced likely persecution by local gangs.

A Justice Department lawyer conceded in a court hearing that Mr. Abrego Garcia should not have been deported. Attorney General Bondi later removed the lawyer, Erez Reuveni, from the case and placed him on leave.

Associated Press