A federal court in Maryland has ordered the release of Kilmar Ábrego García from ICE custody on Thursday, and he will be advised on his release conditions in his separate Tennessee criminal case.
The case of Ábrego, a Salvadorian national who was a construction worker in Maryland, has become a proxy for the partisan struggle over Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration policy and mass deportation agenda.
Trump administration officials have waged a relentless public relations campaign against Ábrego, repeatedly referring to him as a member of the MS-13 gang, among other things, despite the fact he has not been convicted of any crimes. His attorneys have denounced the criminal charges. Ábrego has said that, while imprisoned in El Salvador, he suffered beatings, sleep deprivation and psychological torture.
US district judge Paula Xinis stated in her Thursday order: “Since Ábrego Garcia’s wrongful detention in El Salvador, he has been re-detained, again without lawful authority.”
Xinis indicated the lack of a valid removal order means the government cannot legally deport Ábrego García from the US.
Earlier in the month, federal prosecutors asked the Maryland judge overseeing Abrego Garcia’s immigration case to lift the restriction on deporting him to Liberia. They said Liberia had provided assurances that he would not face persecution or torture there.
Ábrego Garcia, a native of El Salvador who had been living in Maryland with his wife and children, was deported in March to an El Salvador mega-prison. The deportation happened despite a 2019 court ruling that prohibited his deportation to El Salvador due to credible fears of persecution.
His mistaken deportation to the prison in March set off a prominent legal fight over his return – emblematic of the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies.
Government lawyers later acknowledged that his removal resulted from a procedural mistake. Multiple federal judges and a unanimous supreme court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return after determining his arrest was “illegal”.
In June, Ábrego Garcia was brought back to the US to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee, where he entered a not guilty plea. Since then, the Trump administration has sought to deport him to several nations, including Ghana, Liberia, and Uganda.
After being released to his brother’s custody in Maryland while awaiting trial, he was again taken into custody by immigration officials and is now detained in Pennsylvania.
In August, judge Xinis issued an order preventing his immediate removal from the US.
