(NEW YORK) — A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, from detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia upon his release from criminal custody in Tennessee.
Abrego Garcia has been awaiting his release on bail after pleading not guilty last month to human smuggling charges in Tennessee.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ruled on Wednesday that the U.S. government “shall restore Abrego Garcia to his ICE Order of Supervision out of the Baltimore Field Office.”
Judge Xinis also ordered the government to provide written notice to Abrego Garcia and his attorneys if they intend to remove him to a third country.
This decision follows a separate ruling in Abrego Garcia’s criminal case where U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw denied the government’s motion to revoke a magistrate judge’s order for Abrego Garcia’s release. Judge Crenshaw said on Wednesday that Abrego Garcia “shall be released upon the issuance of the Magistrate Judge’s release order with conditions.”
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native, was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which he denies.
He was brought back to the U.S. last month to face charges in Tennessee of allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the U.S. while he was living in Maryland.
The government has indicated it intends to detain Abrego Garcia and deport him to a third country if he is released from custody.
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