Judge lets Kilmar Abrego Garcia remain free as immigration case is reviewed

Judge doubts government in deportation case

A federal judge on Monday raised doubts about whether government officials could be relied upon to comply with court orders preventing them from placing Kilmar Abrego Garcia back into immigration custody or deporting him.

US District Judge Paula Xinis pointed out that Abrego Garcia had previously been deported without legal authority and said she was “growing beyond impatient” with what she described as government misrepresentations before her court. "Why should I give the respondents the benefit of the doubt?” she asked, referring to government lawyers.

Abrego Garcia’s wrongful deportation and imprisonment in El Salvador in March has energised both sides of the US immigration debate. The Trump administration initially resisted efforts to return him to the United States but later complied after the US Supreme Court intervened. He returned in June, only to face an arrest warrant in Tennessee on human smuggling charges.

On December 11, Xinis ordered Abrego Garcia’s release from immigration detention after finding that the government had no workable plan to deport him. The following day, she issued a temporary restraining order preventing Immigration and Customs Enforcement from immediately taking him back into custody. Monday’s hearing was held to determine whether that restraining order should be lifted.

The proceedings highlighted the complexity of the case as Xinis pressed government lawyers for clarity on Abrego Garcia’s status. “I am trying to get to the bottom of whether there are going to be any removal proceedings,” she said. “You haven’t told me what you’re going to do next."

Xinis said she would leave the restraining order in place for now while she considers the issue.

“This is an extremely irregular and extraordinary situation,” Xinis told attorneys.

Abrego Garcia, his wife and legal team were welcomed to the federal court building in Maryland by a boisterous reception that included a choir, bullhorn and drum as scores of supporters cheered. Inside the courtroom Abrego Garcia sat with at least half a dozen defense team members while a lone government attorney sat across from them.

Before his release, Abrego Garcia had been in immigration detention since August. In that time, the government has said it planned to deport him to Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana and, most recently, Liberia. However, officials have made no effort to deport him to the one country he has agreed to go to — Costa Rica. Xinis has even accused the government of misleading her by falsely claiming that Costa Rica was unwilling to take him.

The government's “persistent refusal to acknowledge Costa Rica as a viable removal option, their threats to send Abrego Garcia to African countries that never agreed to take him, and their misrepresentation to the Court that Liberia is now the only country available to Abrego Garcia, all reflect that whatever purpose was behind his detention, it was not for the ‘basic purpose’ of timely third-country removal,” she wrote.

In court on Monday, Abrego Garcia's attorneys reiterated that he is prepared to go to Costa Rica “today.”

Abrego Garcia has an American wife and child and has lived in Maryland for years, but he immigrated to the U.S. illegally from El Salvador as a teenager. In 2019, an immigration judge granted him protection from being deported back to his home country, finding he faced danger there from a gang that had targeted his family. Although he is back in the U.S. now, Department of Homeland Security officials have said he cannot stay and have vowed to deport him to a third country.

In addition to the Maryland case, Abrego Garcia is fighting the human smuggling charges in Tennessee. His attorneys in that case on Friday asked the judge for sanctions after Border Patrol's Gregory Bovino made disparaging comments about their client on national news. The judge previously ordered Justice Department and Homeland Security officials to cease making comments that could prejudice Abrego Garcia's right to a fair trial.