Judge rules ICE cannot re-detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot re-detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia because a 90-day detention period has expired and the government has no viable plan for deporting him, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. The government "made one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success," U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, in Maryland, wrote in her Tuesday order. "From this, the Court easily concludes that there is no ‘good reason to believe’ removal is likely in the reasonably foreseeable future." Abrego Garcia, who has an American wife and child and has lived in Maryland for years, immigrated illegally from El Salvador as a teenager. In 2019, an immigration judge gave him protection from deportation, finding he faced danger in his home country. But in March, he was deported to El Salvador anyway in what a government attorney later called an administrative error. The administration returned him to the United States in June but has since pursued deportation to a third country. Abrego Garcia also faces human smuggling charges in federal court in Tennessee. He has pleaded not guilty and asked the judge to dismiss the case, arguing the charges amount to "selective or vindictive prosecution."