Federal Judge Orders Kilmar Abrego Garcia Freed From ICE Custody

A federal judge on Thursday ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia to be “immediately” released from an immigration detention facility as the Department of Homeland Security vows to challenge the decision.

“This is naked judicial activism by an Obama appointed judge. This order lacks any valid legal basis and we will continue to fight this tooth and nail in the courts,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said that “since Abrego Garcia’s return from wrongful detention in El Salvador, he has been re-detained, again without lawful authority” and granted his petition to be freed from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.

“Abrego Garcia’s case demands judicial intervention,” Xinis said.

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Xinis instructed the federal government to inform Abrego Garcia of her order and to notify the court by 5 pm ET on Thursday of the time and location of his release.

“Because Abrego Garcia has been held in ICE detention to effectuate third-county removal absent a lawful removal order, his requested relief is proper,” Xinis added.

In March, Abrego Garcia, 30, was deported to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison after President Donald Trump and other administration officials claimed he was a member of the MS-13 crime gang. Over the summer, the Salvadoran native was returned to the United States to face human smuggling charges and released into his brother’s custody. He has pleaded not guilty and denies being a gang member. He was later detained again by federal authorities and is now being held in a Pennsylvania detention facility.

In November, the Trump administration asked Judge Xinis to dissolve a ban on deporting Abrego Garcia to Liberia, a West African nation. The administration has been seeking to deport him to at least five other countries.

He reportedly lived in Maryland for more than a decade after entering the United States illegally.

Abrego Garcia’s human smuggling trial in Tennessee is set to start in January, but he’s trying to get the charges dropped, claiming he is being unfairly prosecuted. According to the indictment, Abrego Garcia and accomplices conspired to unlawfully transport aliens from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Ecuador, and other nations into the United States.