A US judge on Thursday ordered the immediate release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose wrongful deportation became a flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, ruling that the American government never secured a formal order for his removal from the United States.
The order from US District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland means Abrego Garcia will at least temporarily be allowed to return to his Maryland home despite repeated declarations from Trump administration officials that he would never again be free in the US.
The judge’s decision to free Abrego Garcia marked the latest major development in a saga that began in March when Abrego Garcia was wrongfully deported to a prison in his native El Salvador and then brought back to the US in June to face human smuggling charges.
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His case has become a symbol of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown, with Trump officials portraying Abrego Garcia as a danger to public safety and critics accusing the administration of trampling legal rights in its bid to deport millions living illegally in the United States.
Abrego Garcia, 30, has been held in immigration detention since August, when immigration authorities arrested him shortly after he was released from custody in his criminal case.
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The order calls for him to be released immediately from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Pennsylvania.