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Federal Judge Orders Immediate Release of Kilmar Ábrego García From ICE Custody

The decision underscores judicial scrutiny of detentions lacking statutory basis during a period of intensifying legal challenges to ICE tactics.

Overview

  • Ábrego García was released Thursday from ICE’s Moshannon Valley facility in Pennsylvania and was directed to report to an ICE office in Baltimore on Friday morning.
  • Judge Paula Xinis found his post‑return confinement had no legal authority, noting the government’s months‑long effort to pursue third‑country removal without a valid removal order.
  • DHS condemned the ruling as judicial activism and said it will appeal, while the White House signaled the administration also plans to challenge the order.
  • Separately, the Seventh Circuit blocked a district judge’s mass release of Chicago‑area detainees but allowed the extension of a consent decree that tightens documentation and oversight of ICE arrests.
  • Reports detail arrests at immigration courts, USCIS interviews, and check‑ins in cities including New York and Salt Lake City, with New York lawmakers proposing a ban on courthouse arrests and Minneapolis officials decrying ICE’s mistaken detention of a U.S. citizen.