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30m ago

Judge Blocks Deportation After ICE Detains Kilmar Abrego Garcia in Baltimore

The order responds to government plans to send him to Uganda after he declined a plea that tied a Costa Rica transfer to a guilty plea.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia holds wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura's hand as he appears for a check-in at the ICE Baltimore field office in Maryland on Aug. 25, 2025.
Image
Jennifer Vasquez Sura, front left, wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, attends a protest rally at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, to support Kilmar Abrego Garciab. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - AUGUST 25: Kilmar Abrego Garcia (C) and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura (Center Right) enter a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office on August 25, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. The U.S. Government is threatening to deport Garcia, a Maryland construction worker from El Salvador, to Uganda after he rejected a plea deal to be charged with Human Smuggling and deported to Costa Rica. Earlier this year Garcia was wrongfully deported to a notorious anti-terrorism prison CECOT in El Salvador. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Overview

  • Abrego Garcia was taken into ICE custody at the Baltimore field office on Monday after reporting as ordered, with DHS saying he was being processed for removal.
  • U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis temporarily halted any deportation and set a proceeding to determine whether he can challenge third‑country removal in court.
  • Court filings show prosecutors floated deportation to Costa Rica in exchange for a guilty plea, and ICE later signaled Uganda as a destination if he refused.
  • His lawyers filed a habeas and civil action in Maryland seeking to block third‑country removal and to contest his detention by immigration authorities.
  • Abrego Garcia previously received 2019 withholding‑of‑removal, was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March and later returned, and he now pleads not guilty to federal human‑smuggling charges he seeks to dismiss as vindictive.