In August 2018, amidst President Trump’s first term, an Iraqi immigrant named Muneer Subaihani was reported missing.
Having lived as a refugee in the United States for nearly 25 years, Mr. Subaihani was one of many Iraqis shielded from deportation due to a federal court ruling. His legal representatives believed he remained in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), where he had been detained following an ICE operation.
After searching the federal ICE database yielded no results, his attorneys approached the Justice Department for clarity. They received a response within a day.
According to Margo Schlanger, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School and one of Mr. Subaihani’s lawyers, the government admitted its error. Mr. Subaihani had been deported to Iraq, contrary to the court order.
The situation mirrors a current case unfolding during Mr. Trump’s second term, where a Salvadoran man was deported due to what the government has acknowledged as an “administrative mistake.”
However, the administration’s responses in the two situations are markedly different, reflecting Mr. Trump’s increasing assertiveness in ignoring court rulings and his strict stance on deportations, irrespective of legal limitations.
In the case of Mr. Subaihani, the government acknowledged its blunder before the federal court, initiating a lengthy effort to locate and return a man who should never have been deported.
Conversely, the Salvadoran individual, 29-year-old Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, is facing a significantly different scenario. Officials in the Trump administration have labeled Mr. Abrego Garcia as a member of the MS-13 gang, despite the absence of any charges against him, and they concede that his deportation was erroneous.
U.S. officials are well aware of Mr. Abrego Garcia’s location; he is currently held in a notorious Salvadoran prison recognized as the Terrorism Confinement Center. However, Trump and his senior officials maintain that the matter is beyond their jurisdiction, asserting that only El Salvador has the authority to determine his repatriation.
During a hearing in Federal District Court in Maryland on Tuesday, Judge Paula Xinis criticized the Trump administration for failing to comply with a Supreme Court directive mandating the government to “facilitate” Mr. Abrego Garcia’s release. The judge also suggested that she might order the government to quickly provide details regarding its efforts, or lack thereof, to liberate Mr. Abrego Garcia, a father of three who is married to an American citizen.
President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, a supporter of Trump who visited the White House recently, made it clear that he would not be returning Mr. Abrego Garcia to the U.S., calling the notion “preposterous.”
“The administration’s reluctance to bring Mr. Abrego Garcia back to the United States stands in stark contrast to how it approached Mr. Subaihani’s case,” commented Miriam Aukerman, an attorney with the A.C.L.U. of Michigan. “ICE promptly went to the court to admit it had violated the court’s ruling, and subsequently worked, according to court orders, to facilitate his return, including cooperation with the U.S. Embassy in Iraq and communication with the Iraqi government.”
In a court document dated August 23, 2018, the government acknowledged its mistake, stating that Mr. Subaihani was removed to Iraq despite the court’s order.
The effort to locate Mr. Subaihani proved challenging since no one knew his whereabouts or if he had even arrived in Iraq. By September 2018, weeks after his deportation, a federal judge compelled ICE to exert significant efforts to find him.
ICE officials complied, informing the court that they were in contact with State Department personnel in Iraq and in other nations he may have traveled through. They even contacted airline representatives, as Mr. Subaihani had been deported on a commercial flight, to gather more information about his location.
By late September, ICE officials reported to the court that they had found proof that Mr. Subaihani had reached Iraq. By October, his attorneys, aided by an investigator, had managed to locate him and began coordinating with ICE for his return to the United States.
Mr. Subaihani recounted to an NPR station that he had hidden during his time in Iraq.
“I stayed in that house for six months. I wasn’t going anywhere,” he told WPLN, Nashville’s NPR affiliate. “It’s not safe.”
In January 2019, he returned to the U.S.
“I’m so happy,” he expressed. “I can’t believe it.” His current location is unknown.
The future for Mr. Abrego Garcia remains uncertain. His wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, claimed the Trump and Bukele administrations were engaging in “political games” with her husband’s life.
“My heart is heavy, but I cling to hope and the support of those around me,” she stated.
