MSNBC Analyst Deflates Joe Scarborough’s Glee Over Supreme Court Order Returning Mistakenly Deported Migrant: ‘A Win for Trump’

Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough’s optimism at the Supreme Court’s unanimous order that the Trump administration return a mistakenly deported man to El Salvador was quickly deflated Friday by MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos, who called the ruling a “win” for the president.

Late Thursday, the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to block the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador. In a 9-0 ruling, the Court upheld a lower court’s order requiring the government to “facilitate” Garcia’s release and treat his case as if he had never been deported.

The administration admitted Garcia was removed due to an “administrative error,” but still appealed the decision. Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant, was among dozens sent last month to the notorious Cecot prison — El Salvador’s notorious mega-jail for gang members — under a bilateral deportation arrangement.

At the opening of Friday’s Morning Joe, Scarborough praised the decision – particularly the fact that all nine justices took up the same position across partisan lines.

The host said: “Again, this wasn’t 5 to 4. I must say I expected this to be a 5 to 4 decision. I was that cynical, but, once again, unsigned, which means 9 to 0.”

Cevallos quickly poured cold water on Scarborough’s praise and pointed out that the ruling left “a lot of loophole potential” and would be taken as a “win” by the administration.

The analyst said:

The order is a win for the Trump administration and, at least, that’s how they’re going to play it.

Here’s what I mean: A real win for Garcia would have been an order that says, ‘hey, administration, I hear the Salvadorian president is going to be here Monday. Put Garcia on the plane seated next to him in a reclining seat, and he’d better be here Monday with the president.’ That would have been a clear win.

The reason I say this, the administration is going to call this a win is there’s a lot of space, a lot of loophole potential in this order. Consider this: One of the lines that we put up there on the screen was that the court ordered him to be returned, or excuse me, to facilitate his return so his case could be handled as if it was properly handled. Remember the 2019 order for Garcia by an immigration judge just really prevented his return to El Salvador? In theory, any of the other 193 countries out there might be perfectly all right. And if this case was handled the way it should have been, that could still result in his removal.

And then there’s even bigger wiggle room for the administration in the language with one word: ‘effectuate.’ Yes, the lower court’s order remains in place. The administration has to ‘effectuate’ his return, but the court has to clarify what does it mean by ‘effectuate’ – I guarantee you.

And here I am saying it now, the administration is going to say that whatever the district court clarifies ‘effectuate’ means, the administration is going to say: ‘Well, guess what we say. You don’t have the power to order us to do that because you’re essentially ordering us to engage in international relations, which you an Article 3 court, another branch of the government, cannot order us to do.’ And we’re going to be right back here where we were this last week.

Cevallos did acknowledge that the ruling was important, as Scarborough highlighted, and that the Supreme Court was taking a stand for “due process” — but warned the limitations of the order were clear. He continued:

As this goes back up through the courts, I will just say, Joe, you’re exactly right. Taken together, the two Supreme Court cases over the last week or so do stand for the idea that people subject to removal are entitled to due process, but sometimes even due process can be relatively hollow, because as long as they give them that notice, and as long as they give them that hearing, arguably these folks can still be removed.

So yes, a win for due process. But I promise you hear me now the administration will call this a win for themselves. Or at least that’s how they’ll play their hand.

Watch above via MSNBC.