Kilmar Abrego Garcia will not be detained by immigration authorities after a federal judge blocked the government from re-detaining him just as he was set to report to immigration officials in Baltimore. His attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said the decision came after an emergency application for a temporary restraining order was filed shortly after midnight and granted by Judge Xinis early Thursday morning.
“Mr. Abrego Garcia will be walking back out those doors later this morning,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said, noting the restraining order prevents his re-arrest at the scheduled check-in. The emergency order was issued after an immigration judge appeared to add a removal order to Abrego Garcia’s record, despite Xinis’s previously ruling that the government could not detain him because no removal order had been issued. Immigration Judge Philip Taylor stated that the order of removal to El Salvador had been “erroneously omitted” from a 2019 hearing.
In her ruling, Xinis highlighted that Abrego Garcia had been re-detained without lawful authority since his release from criminal custody and that the government’s attempt to remove him to Costa Rica, his preferred country of relocation, had failed. Costa Rica reaffirmed its willingness to grant him residence and refugee status. Xinis emphasized the extraordinary nature of Abrego Garcia’s case and reiterated that his detention and attempted removal were inconsistent with legal procedures. The judge had previously blocked his removal until a habeas case challenging it was resolved, and the habeas petition was granted on Thursday.
