A U.S. judge has ordered the immediate release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from immigration custody, after he was mistakenly deported and returned to the United States to face criminal charges.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland ruled that since his return, Mr. Abrego Garcia had been re-detained "without lawful authority," allowing him to at least temporarily return to his home in Maryland.
The Department of Homeland Security criticized the decision, calling it "naked judicial activism" that "lacks any valid legal basis."
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The case has become a focal point in the administration's immigration crackdown. Mr. Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador in March despite a 2019 court order barring his removal.
In her ruling, Judge Xinis noted that the government did not have a valid removal order, preventing his deportation "at this juncture."
Mr. Abrego Garcia, who is married to a U.S. citizen and has lived in Maryland for years, originally entered the U.S. illegally from El Salvador as a teenager. The Trump administration has alleged he was a member of the MS-13 gang, an accusation he denies.
In 2019, he was arrested along with three others in Maryland and detained by federal immigration authorities. At the time, the judge granted him protection from deportation, citing the risk of persecution by gangs in his home country.
After being returned to the U.S. in June, he was arrested in Tennessee on human smuggling charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty. He was subsequently released into the custody of his brother in Maryland and instructed to check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), where he was re-detained.
Judge Xinis emphasized that Mr. Abrego Garcia must now comply with the conditions of his release from Tennessee and cannot be removed from the country. She had initially barred the government from deporting him to a third country while reviewing his detention challenge.
Her order also revealed that the government had considered sending him to Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana, and later Liberia. While Costa Rica offered to accept him, the government did not take up the offer. The judge wrote that immigration detention cannot serve as punishment or be indefinite, noting that the first three African countries had never been "viable options," while Costa Rica "had never wavered in its commitment to receive Abrego Garcia, just as Abrego Garcia never wavered in his commitment to resettle there."
Meanwhile, Liberian officials are closely monitoring the proceedings. The U.S. and Liberia had previously signed an agreement to allow his deportation, which has faced scrutiny from human rights advocates in both countries. The Liberian government has insisted that Mr. Abrego Garcia will receive humane treatment. With the judge's ruling, the planned deportation to Liberia is now uncertain.
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