A judge ordered the immediate release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from immigration detention

A federal judge in Maryland ordered the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from immigration detention Thursday while a legal challenge against his deportation moves forward, handing a major victory to an immigrant whose wrongful deportation to a notorious prison in El Salvador made him a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.

U.S. District Judge Paula Sinis ruled that Abrego Garcia must be released immediately by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“Since Abrego García’s return from wrongful detention in El Salvador, he has been detained again, without legal authority,” the judge wrote. “For this reason, the court will grant Abrego Garcia’s petition for his immediate release from ICE custody.”

The Department of Homeland Security was highly critical of the release order, and a judge appointed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat, vowed to oppose it as “bare judicial activism.” “There is no valid legal basis for this order, and we will continue to fight this tooth and nail in court,” said Tricia McLaughlin, the department’s assistant secretary.

Messages seeking comment were left with Simone Sandoval-Moschenberg, Abrego Garcia’s attorney. The Justice Department declined to comment on the order.

Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen, has an American wife and child and has lived in Maryland for years, but he originally immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager. In 2019, an immigration judge ruled that Abrego Garcia could not be deported to El Salvador because he faced threats from gangs targeting his family. When Abrego Garcia was wrongfully deported there in March, his case became a rallying point for those opposed to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Abrego Garcia was extradited to the US by court order. Since he cannot be deported to El Salvador, ICE is seeking to deport him to a series of African countries. His lawsuit in federal court claims Trump’s Republican administration is illegally using the deportation process to punish Abrego Garcia for wrongfully deporting him to El Salvador.

In her order to release Abrego García, Sinis wrote that federal officials “didn’t just stonewall” the court, “they positively misled the tribunal.” The reference was made to a successive list of four African countries that officials sought to remove Abrego García and confirmed that Costa Rica had withdrawn its offer to accept him – later determined to be untrue.

“But Costa Rica never wavered in its commitment to receive Abrego Garcia, just as Abrego Garcia never wavered in its commitment to resettle there,” the judge wrote.

Xinis also rejected the federal government’s argument that the court lacked jurisdiction to adjudicate the final order of removal, given that the order had not been filed.

“Thus, Abrego Garcia’s request for immediate release will not touch the execution of the removal order if such order does not exist,” she wrote.

Meanwhile, in a separate proceeding in immigration court, Abrego Garcia is petitioning to reopen his immigration case to seek asylum in the United States.

Additionally, Abrego Garcia is facing criminal charges in federal court in Tennessee, where he has pleaded not guilty to human trafficking. He claimed that the prosecution was vindictive and filed a petition to dismiss the charges.

His defense attorney in the Tennessee case, Sean Hecker, declined to comment.

A judge in the case has ordered an evidentiary hearing on the motion after finding some evidence that the prosecution against Abrego Garcia “may be vindictive.” The judge said several statements by Trump administration officials “raise a cause for concern.”

The judge specifically cited Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s statement that the Justice Department appears to have charged Abrego Garcia because he won his wrongful deportation case. ___

Lawler reported from Nashville, Seaver from Toledo, Ohio and Lauer from Philadelphia. Associated Press reporter Alannah Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.