Federal judge blocks Abrego Garcia's deportation

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered that Kilmar Abrego Garcia remain in the country, at least temporarily. The Salvadoran immigrant was detained Monday after attending an interview with immigration authorities, after which DHS said it had begun deportation proceedings. The judge has now suspended that process.

Abrego Garcia, whom the government accuses of belonging to the Mara Salvatrucha (or MS-13) gang, had been released from federal custody only a few days earlier. After his transfer from the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador, he was being held in a prison near Nashville, Tennessee.

After his re-arrest, his attorneys filed a lawsuit challenging both his detention and potential deportation “unless and until he’s had a fair trial,” said attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg.

"Your clients are absolutely forbidden at this juncture to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia from the continental United States," Judge Xinis told Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign, according to The Hill. She added that the prohibition would remain in place until a future hearing is held.

The judge also addressed the government’s alleged plan to deport the detainee to Uganda. His attorneys claim the administration had offered to send him to Costa Rica—where he could be accepted as a citizen or refugee—or, failing that, to Uganda.

“You can’t condition the relinquishing of a constitutional right in that regard,” the judge said, according to the same newspaper, adding that there is no evidence that the African country would refuse to send Abrego Garcia back to El Salvador—the country to which the Justice Department is prohibited from deporting him.