Immigration and Customs Enforcement is barred from re-detaining Salvadoran nativeKilmar Abrego Garciathrough the Christmas holiday, the federal judge in his immigration case said Monday.
In a hearing in Maryland, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis extended, through the holiday, the temporary restraining order that keeps Abrego Garcia out of federal custody while the government attempts to deport him to Liberia or another country.
Abrego Garcia wasreleased from immigration detentionon Dec. 11 after Judge Xinis found the government had detained him "without lawful authority," in part because he had not been issued a formal order of removal during his immigration proceedings in 2019, when a judge also barred the government from deporting him to his native El Salvador due to his fear of persecution.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is released from immigration detention, his attorney says
Following Abrego Garcia's release, an immigration judge "corrected" the error andadded a removal orderto his record, finding that it "was erroneously omitted."
At Monday's hearing, Judge Xinis repeatedly pressed the administration's legal team to answer whether they would detain Abrego Garcia if the restraining order were to be dissolved. The judge stressed she needs documentation properly identifying what the government intends to do with Abrego Garcia and what their reasoning is, in order to ensure that the government won't again detain him without lawful authority.
"Show your work, that's all," Xinis told the government attorneys. "Give it to me and we don't have to speculate."
Xinis ordered the government lawyers to issue a submission of facts by Dec. 26, followed by a response from Abrego Garcia's legal team by Dec. 30, before she can issue a preliminary injunction or dissolve the case.
Abrego Garcia's lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said after the hearing that the Abrego Garcia family has endured a roller coaster of emotions.
"It's just been one earthquake after another," Sandoval-Moshenberg said. "The sword is still hanging -- very much hanging."
Abrego Garcia, who had been living in Maryland with his wife and children, wasdeported in Marchto El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison, despite the 2019 court order barring his removal to that country, after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which he denies.
He wasbrought back to the U.S.in June to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee, after which Judge Xinis released him from ICE detention while he awaits trial. He is scheduled to go to trial on the Tennessee charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty, in January.
On Friday, his attorneys filed a motion seeking sanctions against the Trump administration for allegedly violating a court order that barred officials frommaking extrajudicial statementsthat could impact the case. After Abrego Garcia's release from ICE detention, Chief Border Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino called him an "alien smuggler" and "wife beater" on national TV, his attorneys said.
