A federal judge in Maryland has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting suspected gangbanger Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Monday took custody of Abrego Garcia, an illegal migrant suspected of MS-13 membership and charged with human smuggling, and plan to remove him from the U.S. However, Federal District Judge Paula Xinis, an appointee of President Barack Obama, ordered the Trump administration later that day to halt his deportation, according to multiple media outlets.
Federal immigration authorities are “absolutely forbidden at this juncture to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia from the continental United States,” Xinis said, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Obama-appointed judge said she would first hear more arguments from attorneys.
Xinis’ order marks the latest in a saga that has made Abrego Garcia one of the most well-known names in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda.
ICE first deported the Salvadoran national — who had been living unlawfully in the U.S. for years — to his home country in March, where he briefly stayed at the infamous CECOT mega-prison. Abrego Garcia garnered media attention after the public discovered he was previously granted a withholding of removal order by a judge that prohibited his removal to El Salvador, prompting outcry from Democrats who repeatedly demanded he be returned to the U.S.
The Trump White House facilitated his return to the U.S. in June for him to face human smuggling charges. Over the course of nearly ten years, Abrego Garcia allegedly made more than 100 trips across the U.S., smuggling illegal migrants, drugs and guns, according to a grand jury indictment.
During his stay at CECOT, past accusations by Maryland law enforcement of his alleged MS-13 membership and repeated allegations of domestic abuse by his wife surfaced.
Abrego Garcia was placed into criminal custody in Tennessee over his human smuggling charges. He was released on Friday, where he briefly returned to his Maryland home before reporting to a Baltimore ICE office and, once again, was placed into the agency’s custody.
Federal immigration authorities offered Abrego Garcia a choice: plead guilty to the human smuggling charges and be deported to Costa Rica after serving his sentence, or else face deportation to Uganda, according to his attorneys. The Trump administration reached an agreement with Uganda earlier in August in which the East African nation agreed to accept U.S. deportees under certain conditions.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have indicated that he has rejected the Costa Rica deal, and it’s expected that he will be placed in Uganda when his deportation is allowed to proceed.
“President Trump is not going to allow this illegal alien, who is an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator to terrorize American citizens any longer,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said shortly after Abrego Garcia was re-arrested by ICE. Noem has previously said that the Trump administration “would not stop fighting” until he is removed from the U.S.
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