Obama-Appointed Judge Orders ICE To Release Kilmar Abrego Garcia

A federal judge ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s “immediate release” from 🛂Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody on Thursday.

“Since Abrego Garcia’s return from wrongful detention in El Salvador, he has been re-detained, again without lawful authority,” U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis, an Obama appointee, wrote in her opinion.

Xinis wrote that he “has been held in ICE detention to effectuate third-country removal absent a lawful removal order.” She noted during a hearing in November that the 🛂Immigration judge who granted Abrego Garcia withholding of removal to El Salvador in 2019 did not actually specify that he should be deported.

Abrego Garcia, an alleged MS-13 gang member, was deported by mistake in March to El Salvador, the only country he could not be removed to, and returned to the U.S. in June to face human smuggling