“Return Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” say the judges. “We can’t,” says the Trump administration. “We won’t,” says the government of El Salvador.

That, in a nutshell, is one debate splashing across American headlines. First, let’s review some background.

At last summer’s Republican National Convention, Tom Homan, who now serves as Donald Trump’s border czar, said, “As a guy who spent 34 years deporting illegal aliens, I’ve got a message: To the millions of illegal aliens that Joe Biden released into our country, in violation of federal law — you better start packing now.”

Trump, Homan, and the rest of the administration began working up a deportation strategy almost immediately after the election. The message was as clear to sanctuary Democrats as it was to illegal aliens. The border is closed, and illegals are going to leave one way or another.

So far, the Trump administration has enjoyed tremendous success. When Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas proclaimed, “The border is secure,” average monthly illegal border crossings numbered around 250,000. Now, the border actually is virtually secure. There were just 8,500 crossings in February, down 94% from the previous year.

As Trump put it, “All we really needed was a new president.”

And millions of Americans are cheering. Biden and Harris allowed an intentional invasion of illegal aliens, many of them dangerous criminals. (Everyone who crosses the border illegally commits a crime, by the way.) For Trump to stop and reverse that flow is a huge win for the American people.

The question is whether the administration is maintaining the Rule of Law when deporting illegals.

After deporting Garcia, an El Salvadoran national, back to his home country on one of those infamous flights with the Venezuelan gang members, the administration initially said it was an “administrative error.” It certainly seemed like an unfortunate mistake at the time, though that’s less clear with each passing day.

Now, the administration says it wasn’t a mistake at all. “He was not mistakenly sent to El Salvador,” argued Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy. “He is an illegal alien from El Salvador.” Miller added, “In 2019, he was ordered deported. He [has] a final removal order from the United States. These are things that no one disputes. Where is he from? El Salvador. Where is he a resident and citizen of? El Salvador. Is he here illegally? Yes. Does he have a deportation order? Yes.”

Garcia, who is married to a U.S. citizen, came here (illegally) at age 16 in 2011, he says to avoid persecution by gangs. In 2019, he was granted a “withholding of removal” to protect him from deportation to El Salvador. The standard for such status is even higher than asylum.

Nevertheless, Miller says, “If you are a member of a foreign terrorist organization, you cannot have a withholding order. Since he’s in MS-13, there is no withholding order.”

He blames a “saboteur” in the Justice Department for calling Garcia’s deportation a mistake, and he says that attorney has been fired.

Legal wrangling continues. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, appointed by Barack Obama, ruled that the administration had provided “no evidence” that Garcia was a gang member, calling his detention and deportation “wholly lawless.”

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court paused her deadline for Garcia’s return to the U.S., though the Court agreed with the lower court that the administration must “facilitate and effectuate” his return to the U.S.

In a court filing, the Justice Department said, “DHS does not have the authority to forcibly extract an alien from the domestic custody of a foreign sovereign nation.” Attorney General Pam Bondi said it’s “up to El Salvador if they want to return him.”

During an Oval Office meeting with Trump, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said it’s not going to happen: “I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous.” El Salvador is detaining hundreds of illegals sent from the U.S. for $6 million a year. Bukele added that Garcia is a “terrorist” and “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”

Many consider Bukele a cruel dictator, though he has drastically reduced crime in his country and is now helping the U.S. do so as well. That’s an uncomfortable, if not ugly, tradeoff. Unfortunately, unpleasant things happen when nations don’t keep control of their own borders. The cleanup will be hard, and this particular case isn’t yet resolved.

Follow Nate Jackson on X/Twitter.

Update 4/17: The Washington Examiner reports on a new development:

The Trump administration on Wednesday released documents containing evidence to support Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s membership in the violent MS-13 gang, bolstering its messaging fight about keeping him out of the United States despite mistakenly deporting the Salvadoran native to a prison in his home country.

Abrego Garcia was apprehended by law enforcement in Maryland in the presence of other known MS-13 members, was wearing clothing affiliated with MS-13, and was identified as a member of MS-13 by an informant who had “provided truthful accurate information in the past,” according to the documents.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that no matter what happens, “He will never live in the United States of America again.”