BALTIMORE — Kelmar Abrego Garcia, whose wrongful deportation helped galvanize opposition to President Donald Trump Immigration policiesHe was Released from immigration detention on Thursday, and the judge did so Temporarily blocked No further efforts to arrest him.
Abrego Garcia He currently cannot be deported to his native El Salvador thanks to a 2019 immigration court order that found he had a “well-founded fear” of danger there. However, the Trump administration said he could not remain in the United States. Over the past few months, government officials have said they will deport him to the United States. Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana And recently, Liberia.
Abrego Garcia is fighting his deportation in federal court in Maryland, where his lawyers claim the administration is manipulating the immigration system to punish him for his successful appeal of his previous deportation.
Here is what you should know about the latest developments in the case:
Abrego Garcia is a Salvadoran citizen with an American wife and child He lived in Maryland For years. He immigrated to the United States illegally as a teenager to join his brother, who had become an American citizen. In 2019, an immigration judge granted him protection from deportation to his home country.
While he was allowed to live and work in the United States under the supervision of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he was not granted residency status. Earlier this year, it was He was deported by mistake To El Salvador, despite the previous court ruling.
When Abrego Garcia was deported in March, he was detained An extremely brutal Salvadoran prison Although there is no criminal record.
The Trump administration initially made efforts to return him to the United States, but eventually complied after the US Supreme Court took up the matter. He returned to the United States In June, he faced an arrest warrant on human smuggling charges in Tennessee. Abrego Garcia was held in a Tennessee prison for more than two months before being released on Friday, August 22, to await trial in Maryland under house arrest.
His freedom continued over the weekend. The following Monday, he reported to the immigration office in Baltimore for his check-in and was immediately taken into immigration custody. Officials announced plans to deport him to a series of African countries, but they were blocked by an order from US District Judge Paula Chenis in Maryland.
On Thursday, after months of lawsuits and hearings, Shenis ruled that Abrego Garcia must be released immediately. Her ruling was based on what was likely a procedural error on the part of the immigration judge who heard his case in 2019.
Normally, in such a case, the immigration judge will first issue a deportation order. The judge will then essentially freeze that order by issuing a “withholding of removal” order, according to Memphis immigration attorney Andrew Rankin.
In the case of Abrego García, the judge agreed to block his extradition to El Salvador because he found that Abrego García’s life might be in danger there. However, the judge never took the first step to issue a removal order. The government argued in the Shenis court that a deportation order could be inferred, but the judge disagreed.
Chenis ruled that without a final order of removal, Abrego Garcia could not be deported.
The only way to get a deportation order is to go back to immigration court and request it, Rankin said. But reopening the immigration case is a gamble because Abrego Garcia’s lawyers are likely to seek protection from deportation in the form of asylum or some other type of relief.
One weakness here is that immigration courts are officially part of the executive branch, and judges there are generally not viewed as independent like federal judges.
“There may be independence in some areas, but if the administration wants a certain outcome, it seems by all accounts they will put pressure on individuals to get that outcome,” Rankin said. “I hope he gets a fair trial, and that two lawyers make the arguments — one person wins, one loses — instead of giving it to an immigration judge with a 95% rejection rate, where everyone in the world knows how it’s going to go down.”
Alternatively, the government could appeal Shenis’s order to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and try to overturn her ruling, Rankin said. If the appeals court agreed with the government that the final deportation order was implied, there would be no need to reopen the immigration case.
In compliance with Shenis’s order, Abrego Garcia was released from a Pennsylvania immigration detention center Thursday evening and allowed to return home for the first time in months. However, he was also required to report to an immigration officer in Baltimore early the next morning.
Fearing he would be detained again, his lawyers asked Shenis for a temporary restraining order. Xinis filed the order early Friday morning. It prohibits immigration officials from returning Abrego Garcia to custody, at least for now. A hearing on the issue could be held as early as next week.
Meanwhile, in Tennessee, Abrego Garcia has He pleaded not guilty In the criminal case, he was charged with human smuggling and conspiracy to commit the crime of human smuggling.
Prosecutors allege he accepted money to transport people who were in the country illegally within the United States. The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee for speeding. Body camera footage From a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer showing a calm exchange with Abrego Garcia. There were nine passengers in the car, and the officers discussed suspicions of smuggling among themselves. However, Abrego Garcia was eventually allowed to continue driving with only a warning.
Abrego Garcia asked U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw to do so Smuggling charges dropped On the basis of “selective or retaliatory prosecution.”
Crenshaw previously found “some evidence that the prosecution against him may be retaliatory,” and said several statements made by Trump administration officials were “concerning.” Crenshaw specifically cited a statement made by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on a Fox News show that seemed to indicate that the Justice Department charged Abrego Garcia because he won. The case of his illegal deportation.
The two sides have been arguing over whether top Justice Department officials, including Blanche, could be asked to testify in the case.