A federal judge ordered the immediate release of Kilmar Abrego García from his immigration detention center.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said in her order Thursday that “since Abrego García’s wrongful detention in El Salvador, he has been detained again, again without legal authorization.”
Xinis said the absence of an expulsion order prevents the government from expelling Abrego García from the United States.
Earlier this month, the government asked Xinis to lift a ban. about Abrego García’s deportation to Liberia, saying that he had received assurances from the Liberian government that he would not be persecuted or tortured if deported there.
Abrego García, a Salvadoran who had been living in Maryland with his wife and children, was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT megaprison, despite a 2019 court order prohibiting his deportation to that country for fear of persecution, after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the MS-13 criminal gang, which he denies.
Kilmar Abrego García speaks during a rally and prayer vigil for him before entering a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office on August 25, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland.
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he was brought back to the US in June to face human trafficking charges in Tennessee, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
After being released to his brother’s custody in Maryland pending trial, he was arrested again by immigration authorities and is currently being held in a detention center in Pennsylvania.
Xinis, the judge of the Abrego García case immigration case, in August blocked the government from removing him from the United States until the habeas case challenging his removal was resolved in court.
