Kilmar Abrego Garcia freed from US immigration detention, returns home

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose case has become a flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in the United States, has been freed from detention on a judge’s order and returned to his home.

Abrego Garcia, who was released on Thursday, appeared for a “check-in” at an immigration facility in Baltimore on Friday and was able to walk out amid fear that he may be re-arrested.

His lawyers said they had obtained another temporary court order early on Friday prohibiting the government from “cruelly” detaining him a day after his release.

“I stand before you as a free man. And I want you to remember me this way. With my head held up high,” Abrego Garcia told reporters.

He expressed gratitude for his family, supporters and legal team. “I want to tell everybody who is also suffering family separation. God is with you. This is a process. Keep fighting,” Abrego Garcia said.

In a ruling on Thursday, US District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement to let Abrego Garcia go immediately, writing that federal authorities had detained him again after his return to the US without any legal basis.

The face of Trump’s hardline immigration policies

Abrego Garcia has an American wife and children and has lived in Maryland for years, under protected legal status since 2019, when a judge ruled he should not be deported because he could be harmed in his home country by a gang that targeted his family. He originally moved to the US without documentation as a teenager.

He then became the highest-profile case among more than 200 people sent to the notorious El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison as part of Trump’s crackdown on refugees, migrants and asylum seekers in the US.

He was wrongfully deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador in March. A court later ordered his return to the US, where he was detained again, as immigration officials sought to deport him to a series of African countries instead of El Salvador.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have said in a previous filing that he endured maltreatment during his nearly three months in detention in El Salvador, including “severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture”.

The US administration has said it was targeting violent gang members by sending them El Salvador, but many of the people swept up in the campaign – including Abrego Garcia – have protested their innocence.

The Department of Homeland Security slammed Thursday’s ruling and said it would appeal it, labelling the decision as “naked judicial activism” by a judge appointed during President Barack Obama’s administration.

“This order lacks any valid legal basis, and we will continue to fight this tooth and nail in the courts,” said Tricia McLaughlin, the department’s assistant secretary.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said he expects his client’s ordeal was far from over, and he was preparing to defend him against further deportation efforts.

“I wish I could say that the government has decided that he’s suffered enough for his temerity to stand up for his constitutional right to not be deported to a country where he already had a judge order that he not be deported to,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said.

“I wish I could say that this is the end of the story, but I think we’ve all been here long enough to know that unfortunately the government is not going to leave [Abrego Garcia] alone. They’re going to keep throwing the weight of the Department of Justice, the weight of the Department of Homeland Security, against this man and against his family.”

The lawyer earlier said the judge’s ruling had made it clear that the government could not detain a person indefinitely without legal authority, adding that Abrego Garcia had already “endured more than anyone should ever have to”.

Legal battles ongoing

Abrego Garcia has filed a federal lawsuit claiming the Trump administration is illegally using the deportation process to punish him due to the attention his case received.

Since his return, federal authorities have also filed charges against Abrego Garcia for alleged human smuggling related to a 2022 traffic stop.

He has pleaded not guilty and filed a motion to dismiss the charges, claiming the prosecution is vindictive.

In her ruling on Thursday, Judge Xinis said Trump lawyers “affirmatively misled” the court, including falsely claiming that Costa Rica had rescinded an offer to accept Abrego Garcia.

Abrego Garcia has said he was willing to resettle there in the event he was deported from the US.

In a separate proceeding, Abrego Garcia has also petitioned to reopen his immigration case to seek asylum in the US.