Judge orders Kilmar Abrego Garcia be released from ICE custody ‘immediately’

By Priscilla Alvarez, Devan Cole, CNN

(CNN) — A federal judge in Maryland ordered the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from ICE custody “immediately,” according to a Thursday court filing, a significant development in the case concerning the El Salvadoran man mistakenly deported this year before being returned to the United States.

Abrego Garcia’s wrongful deportation has been the basis of a fraught legal battle that’s included tense confrontations between the judge and the Justice Department. It has also come to embody the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and aggressive posture in trying to deport immigrants to far-flung countries.

“Since Abrego Garcia’s return from wrongful detention in El Salvador, he has been re-detained, again without lawful authority,” district Judge Paula Xinis wrote. “For this reason, the Court will GRANT Abrego Garcia’s Petition for immediate release from ICE custody.”

“Abrego Garcia’s case demands judicial intervention,” Xinis added.

The Trump administration has struggled in recent weeks to find a country to quickly deport him to. Judges are able to order officials to release detained migrants if their removal from the US doesn’t appear imminent.

That reality, coupled with the fact that Xinis found that no order of removal currently exists for Abrego Garcia, meant that he was being unlawfully held in a remote immigration detention facility in Pennsylvania.

“Because Abrego Garcia has been held in ICE detention to effectuate third-country removal absent a lawful removal order, his requested relief is proper,” she wrote, adding that the 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.”

While Xinis did not define “immediately,” the judge said that the Justice Department must report on the status of his release by 5pm ET Thursday.

The Department of Homeland Security’s spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, blasted Xinis’ order and suggested the government would appeal it.

“This is naked judicial activism by an Obama appointed judge,” McLaughlin said. “This order lacks any valid legal basis and we will continue to fight this tooth and nail in the courts.”

Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States in June after a tense legal battle over his wrongful deportation. He was charged by US authorities upon his arrival for allegedly helping to smuggle undocumented immigrants into the country. He has pleaded not guilty and was briefly detained in Tennessee over the charges before being released in August.

But he was immediately taken into custody by immigration officials, and the administration has since been attempting to re-deport him to various African countries he has no ties to.

But as those plans repeatedly fell through this fall, Xinis appeared to grow restless, questioning why the administration didn’t instead deport Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica, which said earlier this year that it would accept him and give him some form of legal status.

Officials “serially ‘notified’ Abrego Garcia – while he sat in ICE custody – of his expulsion to Uganda, then Eswatini, then Ghana; but none of these countries were ever viable options, and at least two had not even been asked to take Abrego Garcia before Respondents claimed supposed removal to each,” the judge wrote in her decision Thursday.

“But Costa Rica had never wavered in its commitment to receive Abrego Garcia, just as Abrego Garcia never wavered in his commitment to resettle there,” Xinis added.

Tennessee charges

Abrego Garcia is still under strict pre-trial release conditions imposed on him by the federal judge overseeing a human smuggling criminal case brought against him in Nashville.

Those conditions, which kick in once he’s released from the facility in Pennsylvania, include being under the custody of his brother in Maryland and not being able to travel outside that state without permission from the Tennessee court.

He also cannot leave his residence except to go to work, attend religious services, see a medical professional or attend court proceedings.

The trial in that case is set to begin in January, but Abrego Garcia has mounted a bid to get the charges dropped before then based on his claim that he’s being unfairly prosecuted. A major hearing over that request had been set for this week, but it was scrapped by the judge earlier this month. Sealed court proceedings are now underway in the matter.

CNN has reached out to Abrego Garcia’s attorneys for comment.

CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this report.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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