JUST IN: Judge Temporarily Halts Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s Deportation to Uganda

(Photo by Robyn Stevens Brody/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

A federal court judge has temporarily blocked Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s deportation to the African nation of Uganda.

Abrego Garcia surrendered to ICE Agents in Baltimore on Monday, where Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in an X post that the Maryland father of three was being processed for deportation.

But the El Salvadoran native’s attorney filed a lawsuit “until a court has heard his claim for protection, stating that the U.S. could place him in a country where ‘his safety cannot be assured,’” The Associated Press reported.

Abrego Garcia came to the public’s attention when he was unlawfully deported to El Salvador before court intervention that prompted the Trump administration to return him to the United States to face criminal charges of human smuggling. He was released from criminal custody in Tennessee last week and returned to his family in Maryland.

Monday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis  temporarily blocked Abrego García’s deportation to Uganda. The judge is looking to hold a hearing on whether the Trump administration “will give him an opportunity to contest his removal to that country,” The AP reported.