Overview

• Defense asked a federal judge to bar Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi and related DOJ/DHS officials from making extrajudicial comments about the case.
• U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis has temporarily forbidden the administration from removing Abrego Garcia while the court determines whether he can contest a proposed transfer to a third country, including Uganda.
• Abrego Garcia has notified the government of an asylum claim in U.S. immigration court, a strategy experts call prudent yet risky because a loss could reopen removal to El Salvador.
• DHS, the White House and senior officials have publicly labeled him an MS-13 member and criminal; he denies gang membership, and his motion argues such rhetoric threatens a fair trial.
• He was deported to El Salvador in March despite a 2019 bar, returned to the U.S. in June, and now faces a federal indictment in Tennessee alleging a human-smuggling conspiracy.