“I stand before you as a free man, and I want you to remember me this way,” Abrego Garcia said.
A federal judge has issued an order forbidding immigration officials from re-detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father who was illegally deported to a super-prison in El Salvador earlier this year.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant and U.S. legal resident, was deported in March, when the Trump administration wrongly alleged, without evidence, that he was associated with the MS-13 gang. When it became clear that Abrego Garcia’s deportation was improper, the administration doubled down, with President Donald Trump going so far as to share a blatantly photoshopped image of “MS-13” tattooed on Abrego Garcia’s hands.
Abrego Garcia was sent to the CECOT super-prison in El Salvador before being returned to the U.S. in June, following court orders demanding that he be sent back to the U.S. Upon his return, the Trump administration again detained Abrego Garcia, this time claiming, without evidence, that a minor 2022 traffic incident in Tennessee proved he was trafficking immigrants across the country.
A judge in that case opined that there was a “realistic likelihood” that the charges issued against Abrego Garcia were a “vindictive” action.
On Thursday, Maryland-based District Judge Paula Xinis ordered that Abrego Garcia be released from U.S. immigration custody, saying his continued detention was improper and a violation of his due process rights.
“Since Abrego Garcia’s wrongful detention in El Salvador, he has been re-detained, again without lawful authority,” Xinis said in her order.
Out of concern that the Trump administration would attempt to re-detain Abrego Garcia, his lawyers filed a temporary restraining order hoping to block such an action. Because that order requires review from a federal judge, which could take some time, they also filed an emergency request for Xinis to block the re-detaining of Abrego Garcia in the interim.
On Friday morning, Xinis granted that motion, as Abrego Garcia was preparing to do a routine check-in at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) center in Maryland.
“If, as Abrego Garcia suspects, Respondents will take him into custody this morning, then his liberty will be restricted once again. It is beyond dispute that unlawful detention visits irreparable harm,” Xinis said in her Friday morning order.
Abrego Garcia praised the decision in front of the ICE office shortly afterward.
“I stand before you as a free man, and I want you to remember me this way, with my head held up high,” he said. “I will continue to fight and stand firm against all the injustices this government has done upon me.”
He added:
Regardless of this administration, I believe this is a country of laws. And I believe that this injustice will come to an end.
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