A federal judge ruled Tuesday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot re-detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia, citing the expiration of a 90-day detention period and the lack of a feasible deportation plan.
The Salvadoran man has become a central figure in the national immigration debate. He was mistakenly deported to El Salvador last year, despite previous protections, and now faces the threat of being sent to several African countries proposed by the Department of Homeland Security.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, in Maryland, sharply criticized the government’s approach. “The government made one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success,” she wrote. “From this, the Court easily concludes that there is no ‘good reason to believe’ removal is likely in the reasonably foreseeable future.”
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin responded with criticism. “If this matter were actually about the law or due process, Kilmar Abrego Garcia would already be deported and would never set foot in this country again; Judge Xinis will not be satisfied until he is authorized to live in the United States forever,” she said in an email reported by the AP.
Abrego Garcia has deep ties to Maryland, where he lives with his American wife and child. He entered the U.S. illegally as a teenager, and in 2019 an immigration judge ruled that deportation to El Salvador would put him in danger from a gang threatening his family. Nonetheless, he was erroneously sent back to El Salvador last year.
After public outcry and a court order, the Trump administration brought Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. in June, but only after an indictment charging him with human smuggling in Tennessee. He has pleaded not guilty. The administration has insisted that he cannot remain in the U.S. and proposed deportation to Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana, and Liberia.
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Judge Xinis stated that the government has “purposely — and for no reason — ignored the one country that has consistently offered to accept Abrego Garcia as a refugee, and to which he agrees to go,” referring to Costa Rica.
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, Abrego Garcia’s attorney, emphasized that immigration detention is meant solely to facilitate deportation, not punish individuals. “Since Judge Xinis ordered Mr. Abrego Garcia released in mid-December, the government has tried one trick after another to try to get him re-detained,” he said. “In her decision today, she recognized that if the government were truly trying to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia from the United States, they would have sent him to Costa Rica long before today.”
Sandoval-Moshenberg added that the government should now make a serious, good-faith effort to coordinate his removal to Costa Rica.
READ ALSO: Judge holds line on Abrego Garcia’s freedom while weighing immigration standoff
