A Maryland judge has ordered the immediate release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from ICE detention, according to a Thursday court ruling.
Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported to his native El Salvador earlier this year despite an existing order blocking his deportation. He was returned to the U.S. on human smuggling charges, which he says are false, and was released from criminal custody in August and returned to Maryland.
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Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump admin from deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda -
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Kilmar Abrego Garcia detained by ICE again, could be deported to Uganda -
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Outrage as Kilmar Abrego Garcia faces deportation to Uganda -
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He was arrested again days later in Baltimore and processed for deportation, with officials marking Uganda as a potential location, as well as several other African nations, including Eswatini, Liberia and Ghana. Still, the plan did not go ahead, according to court documents.
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“Since Abrego Garcia’s return from wrongful detention in El Salvador, he has been re-detained, again without lawful authority,” Judge Paula Xinis wrote.
“Because Abrego Garcia has been held in ICE detention to effectuate third-country removal absent a lawful removal order, his requested relief is proper,” Xinis added, saying that the Trump administration’s “conduct over the past months belie that his detention has been for the basic purpose of effectuating removal, lending further support that Abrego Garcia should be held no longer.”
“For this reason, the Court will GRANT Abrego Garcia’s Petition for immediate release from ICE custody,” Xinis concluded.
Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador in March after the Trump administration claimed he was involved in MS-13 gang activity.
A Salvadoran national, Abrego Garcia has an American wife and child and has lived in Maryland for years.
He originally immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager. An immigration judge in 2019 ruled Abrego Garcia could not be deported to El Salvador because he faced danger from a gang that targeted his family.
When he was mistakenly deported there in March, his case became a rallying point for those who oppose U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
For nearly three months, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers fought for his return in a federal court in Maryland. The Trump administration described the mistaken removal as “an administrative error” but insisted he was in a gang.
Abrego Garcia was returned to the U.S. in June on new human smuggling charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee, where he was detained before being released back to Maryland and then being detained again.
Abrego Garcia is currently being held under ICE supervision in Pennsylvania’s Moshannon Valley Processing Center.
— With files from the Associated Press
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