12/12/2025
Judge issues order to prevent immigration officials from detaining Kilmar Ábrego García
Byline
Sara Ruberg, Daniel Zawodny
A federal judge ordered Friday morning that immigration officials could not re-detain Kilmar Ábrego García, just hours after his release from an immigration detention center in Pennsylvania.
Dozens of people rallied around Ábrego García early Friday morning as he appeared at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore for a check-in.
“I stand before you as a free man,” said Ábrego García, speaking in Spanish. “I want you to remember me this way, with my head held up high.”
The last time Ábrego García walked through the ICE office doors in Baltimore in late August, he was taken into custody. He’s been held in immigration detention ever since, and officials have searched for a country to deport him to, including several in Africa.
It’s the latest twist in the legal battle between President Donald Trump’s administration and Ábrego García, a case that has become a flashpoint in the national fight over immigration enforcement. The Salvadoran national and Beltsville resident has been battling for his freedom since he was erroneously deported to El Salvador in March.
He was released from ICE detention at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania on Thursday after U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered that Ábrego García be immediately released. Xinis said in her 31-page opinion that the federal government could not provide Ábrego García’s official removal order, so there was no legal authority to detain or deport him.
The Department of Homeland Security sharply criticized Xinis’ order and vowed to appeal, calling the ruling “naked judicial activism” by a judge appointed during the Obama 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.
Ábrego García was picked up by his legal team just before 5 p.m. and taken back to Maryland, his attorney said Thursday.
Lydia Walther-Rodriguez with CASA, a Maryland immigrant advocacy organization, said Ábrego García was briefly reunited with his family after being released.
Ahead of his check-in Friday morning, Ábrego García was visibly emotional, at times tearing up as advocates and lawmakers spoke to the crowd. U.S. Rep. Glenn Ivey called the Trump administration’s behavior shameful in Ábrego García’s case.
“He’s here today because the judge stood up in Greenbelt and said he should be here,” Ivey said. “Kilmar, welcome home, you’re going to get to stay this time.”
Before entering the ICE field office building, Ábrego García urged the crowd to “keep fighting.”
“Regardless of this administration, I believe this is a country of laws, and I believe that this injustice will come to its end,” he said in Spanish, with Walther-Rodriguez translating.
George Escobar, executive director of CASA, said the ICE check-in this morning was not normal just after a release from detention. It’s unclear what the check-in is for, but they don’t expect him to be re-detained, he said.
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, Ábrego García’s attorney, said the legal team worked late last night to prevent his arrest at the field office on Friday, but added that he expects more to come from the Trump administration.
Ábrego García emerged from the ICE office an hour after he entered, something his team wasn’t able to achieve in August.
The 30-year-old father of three was wrongfully deported in March to El Salvador, despite a 2019 court order that prohibited his removal to the Central American country due to a threat of gang persecution.
The move prompted outcry from the public and politicians, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who visited Ábrego García when he was in detention in El Salvador. Ábrego García was brought back to the U.S. in June but transferred into criminal, pretrial custody in Tennessee. Federal prosecutors allege that he is a gang member and a human trafficker. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges and asked a judge there to dismiss them.
In August, he was released from pretrial detention in Tennessee and allowed to return to Maryland and visit with his family. Days later, he was summoned to the ICE field office in Baltimore and taken into custody. He was eventually moved to the detention center in Pennsylvania until his release on Thursday.
Thursday evening, Acting Regional Deputy Chief Immigration Judge Philip Taylor issued a ruling correcting what he referred to as a clerical error in Ábrego García’s record, stating that a removal order to El Salvador was “erroneously omitted” when he was granted protection in 2019.
Typically, an order withholding a person’s removal comes only after or in conjunction with a separate deportation order.
Taylor, formerly a judge in Atlanta’s immigration court where he denied nearly 90% of asylum cases that came before him, issued the ruling sua sponte, a legal term that means neither side motioned the court for such a ruling.
“Although the parties have not raised this issue with the Immigration Court throughout the past five years of litigation in this matter, the Immigration Court will take this opportunity now to correct that scrivener’s error.”
In a court filing early Friday, Sandoval-Moshenberg called the removal order “manufactured,” and argued Taylor lacked jurisdiction to make such a ruling. There was no court hearing on the matter.
It’s not clear what comes next for Ábrego García: He could file for asylum, or the federal government could appeal the order, which federal officials said they promised to do on Thursday.
Xinis’ decision yesterday marked a win in what has been a contentious legal battle between the Trump administration and Ábrego García for nearly nine months.
Ábrego García still faces felony smuggling charges in a criminal court case in Tennessee. The next hearing has been delayed to late January.
U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw said in October that there was a “realistic likelihood” that this criminal prosecution had vindictive motives. If proven true, the case could be dismissed.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
This story was republished with permission from The Baltimore Banner. Visit www.thebanner.com for more.
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Kilmar Ábrego García was released from immigration detention on Thursday, hours after a federal judge ordered for him to be freed, his attorney said.
