A federal judge has blocked Immigration and Customs Enforcement from taking back into custody a Salvadoran man residing in Maryland, determining that the mandatory 90-day detention window has lapsed and federal officials lack a realistic deportation strategy.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s situation has emerged as a significant case in ongoing immigration discussions following his erroneous deportation to El Salvador in the previous year. Upon his return to the United States, he has been contesting efforts by Department of Homeland Security personnel to send him to multiple African nations.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland criticized the government’s approach in her Tuesday ruling, stating they “made one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success.” She concluded that “there is no ‘good reason to believe’ removal is likely in the reasonably foreseeable future.”
The man maintains family ties in America through his wife and child and has established residence in Maryland over several years, though he originally entered the country without authorization as a minor. A 2019 immigration court decision determined he could not be sent back to El Salvador due to gang-related threats against his family there, yet he was incorrectly deported regardless.
Under mounting public criticism and judicial pressure, the Trump administration facilitated his return in June, though only after obtaining criminal charges against him for alleged human trafficking activities in Tennessee. He has entered a not guilty plea to these charges. Administration officials maintain he cannot remain in the United States permanently and have indicated plans to deport him to Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana, or Liberia according to court documents.
Judge Xinis highlighted in her decision 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.
His legal representative, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, contended during proceedings that immigration detention should not function as punishment. He argued that immigrants may only be held to enable their removal and cannot be confined indefinitely without a realistic deportation strategy.
“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,” Sandoval-Moshenberg stated in a Tuesday email. “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.”
