A federal judge has ordered authorities to immediately release Kilmar Abrego Garcia from immigration detention. Abrego Garcia has made national headlines after the U.S. government admitted it mistakenly deported him to his home country of El Salvador.
Abrego Garcia remains protected against deportations but the Trump administration is seeking to deport him to Liberia. The administration said it received assurances from the Liberian government that authorities there would not persecute or torture him.
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The Justice Department has signaled it would appeal the ruling.
What did the judge say?
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said Thursday that the government had re-detained Abrego Garcia without lawful authority. She said that since the government didn’t currently have the authority to deport Abrego Garcia, his detention cannot continue.
“Although respondents may eventually get it right, they have not as of today. Thus, Abrego Garcia’s detention for the stated purpose of third country removal cannot continue,” Xinis wrote in her order.
What is the background on this case?
Abrego Garcia is a Salvadoran native who illegally entered the U.S. when he was 16. He had lived in Maryland with his wife and children before authorities arrested him.
In 2019, a judge issued a court order barring his deportation to El Salvador. The judge issued the order due to fears of persecution.
In March, immigration authorities arrested him despite the order and deported him to El Salvador. Authorities there incarcerated him in the country’s notorious CECOT prison. The prison was built specifically to hold dangerous gang criminals as part of the country’s crackdown on gang-related crimes.
After his arrest, the Trump administration claimed he was a member of MS-13, a criminal gang originating from El Salvador. Abrego Garcia has denied those claims.
The administration eventually admitted that Abrego Garcia was wrongfully deported because of an “administrative error” and was brought back to the U.S. However, immigration officials detained and indicted him on immigration charges in Tennessee.
A judge ordered he be released from the Tennessee prison and placed into the custody of his brother in Maryland. But a few days later, immigration authorities detained him again and brought him to a detention facility in Pennsylvania.
Abrego Garcia’s case was one of the first national incidents of the Trump administration mistakenly deporting someone. The incident sparked massive protests and even pushed Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., to travel to El Salvador and visit Abrego Garcia in CECOT.
