A federal judge has temporarily blocked the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia until at least early October.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis announced Wednesday that she will extend her restraining order to stop Garcia’s removal while his latest deportation challenge moves forward. An evidentiary hearing is set for October 6, and the judge said she will issue a ruling within 30 days after that hearing.
Garcia, a Salvadoran national who had been living in Maryland with his wife and children, is currently being held in an immigration detention center in Virginia. Judge Xinis ruled that he must remain in custody within a 200-mile radius of the Maryland court but declined to order his release, saying that decision should be left to an immigration judge.
Garcia was deported in March to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT mega-prison despite a 2019 court order blocking his removal there due to fears of persecution. The Trump administration argued that he was a member of the MS-13 gang, a claim his family and lawyers strongly deny. He was returned to the U.S. in June to face federal charges in Tennessee for allegedly transporting undocumented migrants, charges to which he has pleaded not guilty.
After being released last week while awaiting trial, Garcia was taken into immigration custody again on Monday when he checked in with ICE in Baltimore. Authorities then transferred him to Tennessee, where they said he could be deported to Uganda under immigration charges.
On the same day, his attorneys filed an emergency motion to reopen his immigration case so he could apply for asylum. They argued that because Garcia was deported and then brought back to the U.S., he now qualifies to apply for asylum within one year of his most recent entry. They also asked the court to allow Costa Rica to be considered as a designated country of removal, should deportation proceed.
