THE US Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to bring home a man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, rejecting the administration’s emergency appeal.

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

US District Judge Paula Xinis had ordered Mr Abrego Garcia, now being held in a notorious Salvadoran prison, to be returned to the United States by midnight on Monday. He was deported last month.

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

The administration has conceded that it made a mistake in sending him to El Salvador but claims that nothing can be done about it.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor was joined by her two fellow liberals in writing that “the government’s argument … implies that it could deport and incarcerate any person, including US citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene.”