Overview
- U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis on Thursday ordered Abrego Garcia released immediately from ICE custody, ruling he had been held without lawful authority.
- On Friday, the judge barred immigration officials from taking him back into custody until a hearing on a requested temporary restraining order.
- Abrego Garcia was freed from the Moshannon Valley Processing Center and reported to an ICE field office in Baltimore hours later for a scheduled check-in.
- The Department of Homeland Security condemned the ruling as “naked judicial activism” and said it will challenge the decision in court.
- His case follows a wrongful March deportation to El Salvador despite a 2019 order withholding removal, ongoing efforts by the government to send him to third countries as his lawyers cite Costa Rica’s willingness to accept him, and separate human-smuggling charges in Tennessee to which he has pleaded not guilty.