JUST IN: Trump DOJ Ordered by Federal Judge to ‘Immediately’ Free Kilmar Abrego Garcia

(AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)

A federal judge has ordered President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice to free Kilmar Abrego Garcia from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

Maryland District Judge Paula Xinis directed that Abrego Garcia be released “immediately” on Thursday.

The ruling argues immigration authorities repeatedly pushed to remove Abrego Garcia even when they lacked the legal grounds to do so.

In her order, the judge noted that “since Abrego Garcia’s wrongful detention in El Salvador, he has been re-detained, again without lawful authority,” underscoring a pattern of detention the court found to be unsupported by statute or procedure.

She also wrote that without an active removal order, the government has no path to deport him, a fact that ICE officials struggled to explain in recent hearings.

The administration has presented Abrego Garcia as a threat, accusing him of affiliation with the violent MS-13 gang, a charge he denies and one that led to his transfer to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT mega-prison. His deportation came despite a 2019 ruling where an immigration judge denied him asylum on technical grounds, but barred his removal to the country, where he and his family had allegedly been threatened by gangs.

The Salvadoran immigrant’s deportation in March to his birth country triggered outcry and a scramble within the courts. Government lawyers ultimately conceded he had been removed due to a procedural error. A series of federal judges, and a unanimous Supreme Court, ordered officials to “facilitate” his return after his “illegal” arrest.

He was brought back to the U.S. months later, in June, only to be hit with new allegations that he had illegally transported other immigrants, accusations he denies. Administration officials floated he may be deported to Uganda after he refused to accept a deal that would have sent him to Costa Rica.

In Thursday’s ruling the judge detailed the whiplash diplomacy that followed, as the government floated a carousel of countries for removal.

“Respondents’ calculated effort to take Costa Rica ‘off the table’ backfired,” she wrote, noting that officials there reiterated their willingness to give him safe haven. The alternatives “Uganda, then Eswatini, then Ghana” were “never viable options,” she concluded.

Though a judge released him from pretrial detention, ICE seized him again, reigniting a legal tug-of-war over whether he could remain in the country long enough to stand trial.

The latest order requires the government to inform Abrego Garcia of the exact time and place of his release and to update the court by 5 p.m. ET.

As he leaves ICE custody once again, he will be under the oversight of the Pretrial Services Office under the conditions set in his criminal case. The ruling also solidifies an earlier court order blocking his removal until his habeas challenge concludes.

This story is developing.