Judges warn Trump risks public perception of lawlessness in his fight with courts

FILE PHOTO: U.S. military personnel escort alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and the MS-13 gang recently deported by the U.S. government to be imprisoned in the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) prison, at the El Salvador International Airport in San Luis Talpa, El Salvador April 12, 2025. Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A U.S. appeals court urged the Trump administration on Thursday to back off from its escalating confrontation with the judiciary while upholding a judge's order to facilitate the return of a man wrongly deported to El Salvador.

"The executive will lose much from a public perception of its lawlessness," U.S. Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson wrote on behalf of a three-judge panel. The executive branch in the U.S. Constitution refers to the president.