BALTIMORE (AP) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia is finally able to enjoy the festive season with his loved ones after spending a significant part of the year under detention.

Late Monday, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland demanded that government lawyers submit a brief by December 26 regarding their intentions to potentially re-detain him under immigration laws, and to clarify the legal grounds for such actions. His legal team is required to file their response by December 30.

For now, a temporary restraining order prevents Immigration and Customs Enforcement from taking him back into custody.

“This ruling ensures that Kilmar can rest peacefully in his own home in the coming days, without the anxiety of an unexpected separation from his family and community,” shared Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, a community organizer with CASA, in an email statement.

Garcia, a Salvadoran national, has become a focal point in the immigration debate as he contends with U.S. authorities to maintain his residency after an erroneous deportation led to his imprisonment in El Salvador. While officials from President Donald Trump’s administration have labeled him as an MS-13 gang member, Garcia has consistently refuted these claims, maintaining a clean record.

Abrego Garcia has an American wife and child and has lived in Maryland for years, but he immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager. In 2019, an immigration judge granted him protection from being deported back to his home country, after concluding he faced danger there from a gang that targeted his family. In March, he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador anyway.

Facing mounting public pressure and a court order, Trump’s Republican administration brought him back to the U.S. in June, but only after issuing an arrest warrant on human smuggling charges in Tennessee. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges and asked the judge to dismiss them.

Abrego Garcia was held in a Tennessee jail for two months before he was freed to await trial in with his family in Maryland. However, he was only free for a weekend before he was detained by ICE. Trump administration officials have said he cannot stay in the U.S.

Over the past few months, government attorneys have threatened to deport him to Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana and, most recently, Liberia. However, officials have made no effort to deport him to the one country he has agreed to go to — Costa Rica. Xinis has even accused the government of misleading her by falsely claiming that Costa Rica was unwilling to take him.

On Dec. 11, Xinis ordered him released from ICE custody, finding that the government had no viable plan to deport him anywhere and could not keep him in detention indefinitely.