A US federal judge in Maryland on Wednesday ordered that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvador native whose wrongful deportation has been the subject of numerous lawsuits and federal court rebukes this year, is not to be deported from the US as cases involving him wind their way through the courts.
US District Judge Paula Xinis stated that, as Abrego Garcia’s petition for habeas corpus and other legal proceedings continue, Abrego Garcia must be detained within 200 miles of the US District Court of the District of Maryland courthouse so he may maintain access to both his criminal and habeas counsel.
During court proceedings on Wednesday, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys told Xinis that he intends to seek asylum in the US, his second attempt to win asylum status after his first was denied in 2019.
The order came after President Donald J. Trump’s administration had Abrego Garcia taken into custody by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Monday, despite several federal orders requiring his presence in the US to be maintained pending the resolution of his numerous legal claims.
Abrego Garcia’s counsel filed a lawsuit in the US District Court of the District of Maryland on Monday, petitioning to exercise his constitutional right to fight deportation in US immigration court and challenging the legality of the US government’s attempt to deport him to Uganda.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys had notified a US trial judge on Saturday that ICE intended to deport Abrego Garcia to Uganda, abruptly changing an earlier plan to deport him to Costa Rica. Notice was made shortly before ICE detained him on Monday.
A habeas corpus petition challenges the lawfulness of a non-US citizen’s detention, requiring the government to justify the legality of an immigrant’s confinement in federal court.
Trump’s lawsuit against every federal judge in Maryland, attempting to fight against an order to block the immediate deportation of migrants contesting removal, was dismissed on Tuesday. Abrego Garcia is one of the more high-profile detainees, after he was illegally deported in March to El Salvador’s Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo.
Abrego Garcia’s family filed a complaint in the federal court in Maryland days after his deportation, arguing his removal from the US violated his right to due process. Numerous courts required the government to take appropriate steps to return him to the US. Abrego Garcia was returned to the US in June.
The US Department of Homeland Security has described Abrego Garcia as an “MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator,” all unproven accusations. Abrego Garcia was released Friday from jail in Tennessee, where he faces human trafficking charges.
