In August 2018, during President Trump's first term, an Iraqi immigrant named Munierz-bai-Hani went missing.
Subayhani, a refugee who lived in the United States for nearly 25 years, was among the hundreds of Iraqis who were protected from deportation under a federal court order. His lawyers thought he was still under the control of immigration and customs enforcement.
Nothing appeared in a search of the federal ICE database, so the lawyer went to the Department of Justice to find the answer. Within a day they got one.
Margo Schlanger, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School and one of Subayhani's lawyers, said the government had made a mistake. Subayhani had been deported to Iraq in violation of a court order.
The incident holds a striking similarity to what the government has now unfolded in Trump's second term after the United States deported Salvador men.
However, the Trump administration's response in the two incidents could not be any more different. This is a sign of how Trump encourages the courts regardless of legal constraints and how encouraged his resolve to take strict boundaries about deportation.
In Subaihani's case, the government recognized the error in federal courts and established a months-long Odyssey to track and retrieve men who should not have been deported in the first place.
The 29-year-old Salvadoran man from Kilmer Armando Abrego Garcia faces a very different path. Trump officials accused Abrego Garcia of being a member of the MS-13 gang, but he has not been charged with being in the gang and admits that his deportation is false.
American officials know exactly where he is, so there's no need to search far to find Abrego Garcia. But Trump and his top officials argue that the incident is out of their hands. The Trump administration has said that only Salvador can decide to send the man back.
At a hearing in U.S. District Court in Maryland on Tuesday, Judge Paula Sinis scolded the Trump administration, limping in accordance with a Supreme Court order directing the White House to “promote” the release of Abrego Garcia. Judge Sinis also indicated that he would order the government to promptly provide information on what he was or had not done to free his three fathers, Abrego Garcia, who is married to American citizens.
Trump's ally, El Salvador President Naive Buquere, who visited the White House on Monday, called the idea “idiotious” after revealing that he would not send Abrego Garcia back to the US.
“The administration that doesn't want to work to bring Abrego Garcia back to the US is the exact opposite of how they handled Subayhani's case,” said Miriam Oakerman, a lawyer for the ACLU in Michigan. “ICE immediately admitted to violating the court's orders and went to the court, admitting that he had violated the court's orders, including communication between the US embassy in Iraq and the Iraqi government.”
In one court document starting on August 23, 2018, the government owned the mistake and said Subaihani had been removed in Iraq despite the court's order.
Finding Mr. Subaihani was complicated because no one knew where he had gone, even if he had gone to Iraq. By September 2018, weeks after Subayhani was deported, a federal judge had requested that the ice spend a considerable amount of time finding him.
ICE officials complied with Iraq's State Department staff and the courts being in touch with him that he had passed in other countries. They were airline officials – Mr. Subayhani had been deported on a commercial aviation flight – even called out details of his whereabouts.
In late September, ICE officials notified the court that they had found evidence that Subaihani had arrived in Iraq. By October, Subayhani's lawyers had followed him with the help of investigators and tried to work with Ice to get him back to the US.
Subayhani told the NPR station that he was hiding during his stay in Iraq.
“I stayed in that house for six months. I'm not going anywhere,” he told WPLN Station, a NPR affiliate in Nashville. “It's not safe.”
In January 2019, he returned to US soil.
“I'm very happy,” he said. “Unbelievable.” His location is currently unknown.
Abrego Garcia's next step is unknown. His wife, Jennifer Vazquez Sula, said Trump and Buquele's administrations are playing a “political game” in her husband's life.
“My heart is heavy, but I will continue to hold on to the hope and strength of those around me,” she said.
