A Maryland federal judge on Thursday ordered the immediate release of Kilmar Ábrego García, ruling that the U.S. government violated both due process protections and federal immigration law by keeping him in prolonged immigration detention without a lawful removal order. The decision brought a dramatic halt to a months-long saga marked by legal missteps, diplomatic dead ends, and a detention strategy that Judge Paula Xinis said had “collapsed under its own weight.”
A Detention With No Legal Anchor
Ábrego García, a Salvadoran national, was wrongfully deported in March and later returned to the United States to face federal human smuggling charges. Yet despite his reentry, the Trump administration never issued the removal order required to hold him. Judge Xinis noted that the government continued detaining him anyway—an act she ruled unconstitutional.
Federal officials had insisted they were holding Ábrego García in order to remove him to a third country, a strategy that Judge Xinis said ultimately unraveled. The administration attempted to deport him to several African nations, most recently Liberia, even though Ábrego García repeatedly requested removal to Costa Rica.
