Federal Judge Issues Temporary Restraining Order to Halt Detention of Kilmar Ábrego García
A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting immigration officials from detaining Kilmar Ábrego García until a hearing on the motion can occur. The order was issued just hours before Ábrego was scheduled to appear at an ICE field office in Baltimore.
Ábrego had previously been released from a Pennsylvania immigration detention facility following a Maryland judge's order for his release. He has since returned to Maryland, where he lives with his US citizen wife and child after initially entering the United States illegally as a teenager.
His lawyers argued that authorities lacked the authority to detain him because no final deportation order had been issued. These recent rulings represent legal victories for Ábrego, who was deported to an El Salvador mega-prison in March after a court order protecting him from deportation was violated. He was brought back to the US in June.
Since his return, Ábrego has faced human smuggling charges in Tennessee, to which he has pleaded not guilty regarding allegations of transporting migrants. The Trump administration had sought his deportation to Ghana, Liberia, and Uganda. After his release to his brother’s custody in Maryland while awaiting trial, Ábrego was re-detained in Pennsylvania. However, in August, a judge ruled that his immediate removal from the US could not proceed.
