Obama Judge Orders “Immediate Release” of MS-13 Gang Member Kilmar Abrego Garcia
A federal judge in Maryland has ordered the immediate release of MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia from ICE custody, ruling that his ongoing detention has no lawful basis. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis wrote that since Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States after what the court determined to be a wrongful detention in El Salvador, he was taken back into custody “again without lawful authority.”
“For this reason, the Court will grant Abrego Garcia’s petition for immediate release from ICE custody,” Judge Xinis stated in her order.
Abrego Garcia had been living in Maryland without legal status when he was deported to El Salvador earlier this year, where he was placed in the country’s high-security CECOT prison. A separate judicial ruling later required that he be returned to the United States.
He had previously been ordered removed by an immigration judge, but not to El Salvador. As a result, President Trump’s administration explored the possibility of sending him to a third country in Africa. Abrego Garcia challenged that effort, saying he feared persecution and possible torture if sent to Uganda.
Judge Xinis is currently overseeing a civil habeas corpus case filed on his behalf by his wife. Meanwhile, Abrego Garcia faces unrelated federal criminal charges in Tennessee, where a grand jury indicted him for transporting undocumented migrants within the United States. The charges include one count of conspiracy to transport aliens and one count of unlawful transportation of undocumented migrants.
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