In a significant legal development, a federal judge has mandated the immediate release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who was erroneously deported and has since returned to the U.S. to face criminal charges.

While Abrego Garcia is shielded from being sent back to El Salvador, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had considered deporting him to various African nations, despite his lack of any connections there.

In her comprehensive 31-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis stated, “Because Abrego Garcia has been held in ICE detention to effectuate third-country removal absent a lawful removal order, his requested relief is proper.” The judge’s decision highlights the complexities and challenges in handling cases of mistaken deportation.

A federal judge on Thursday ordered that immigration officials immediately release Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the mistakenly deported man who is now back in the United States and faces criminal charges. 

Abrego Garcia remains protected from being removed to El Salvador again, but U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had proposed deporting him to one of several African countries where he has no ties. 

“Because Abrego Garcia has been held in ICE detention to effectuate third-country removal absent a lawful removal order, his requested relief is proper,” U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis wrote in her 31-page opinion. 

“Separately, Respondents’ conduct over the past months belie that his detention has been for the basic purpose of effectuating removal, lending further support that Abrego Garcia should be held no longer,” Xinis continued. 

She ordered his release to take place “immediately” and demanded the government provide an update by 5 p.m. EST.

Though Xinis’s ruling paves the way for ICE to release Abrego Garcia, he remains subject to the pre-trial release conditions imposed in his criminal human smuggling case. 

Those include detention at his Maryland home with electronic monitoring, third-party custodianship and other measures to ensure he appears in court. 

Still, Xinis’s ruling marks a major legal victory for Abrego Garcia, who has sought his release from immigration custody for months. Xinis is an appointee of former President Obama. 

A Salvadoran national who entered the county illegally nearly 15 years ago, Abrego Garcia garnered national attention after he was mistakenly deported in March to a megaprison in El Salvador despite an order protecting him from deportation to the country over his fears of violence. 

It became a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, a cornerstone of the president’s second-term agenda. The administration has accused Abrego Garcia of being an MS-13 gang member, which he denies.

Abrego Garcia’s case quickly went to the Supreme Court and back, ultimately leading to his return to the United States in June as the Justice Department unsealed a human smuggling indictment against him in Tennessee. He pleaded not guilty. 

After the judge in Tennessee permitted Abrego Garcia’s release pending trial, he returned to Maryland, where he had lived for over a decade. He was quickly taken into immigration custody by ICE and has been detained ever since. 

With the order protecting Abrego Garcia from deportation to El Salvador still on the books, the Trump administration began proposing African countries. 

At turns, they provided him notice he would be removed to Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana or Liberia, though they later said the Ghana notice was sent “prematurely.” 

Abrego Garcia maintained he should be allowed to instead be removed to Costa Rica. The Trump administration insisted the country wasn’t agreeing to take him. 

The judge found that to be untrue, writing in Thursday’s ruling that the Trump administration “affirmatively misled the tribunal” by suggesting otherwise. 

“This evidently remained an inconvenient truth for Respondents,” Xinis wrote. 

“But more to the point, Respondents’ persistent refusal to acknowledge Costa Rica as a viable removal option, their threats to send Abrego Garcia to African countries that never agreed to take him, and their misrepresentation to the Court that Liberia is now the only country available to Abrego Garcia, all reflect that whatever purpose was behind his detention, it was not for the ‘basic purpose’ of timely third-country removal,” the judge continued. 

This story was updated at 10:53 a.m.