Overview
- U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ruled ICE had been detaining Abrego Garcia solely to effect a third‑country removal that the law does not permit without a removal order.
- The order directs his release today and returns him to the pretrial supervision conditions already set in his Tennessee criminal case.
- Xinis cited shifting government plans to send him to Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana, or Liberia and concluded there was no significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future.
- The court noted Costa Rica has publicly offered to accept him as a refugee, a pathway the government has not pursued while continuing third‑country efforts.
- Separately, Judge Crenshaw ordered the Justice Department to provide redacted copies of six documents relevant to Abrego Garcia’s vindictive‑prosecution motion, and DOJ can seek an emergency stay of the release in the 4th Circuit.