Federal judge orders Kilmar Abrego Garcia released from ICE custody

A federal judge in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Thursday ordered Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia ordered released from ICE custody, capping — for now – an extraordinary, 10-month legal fight that has spanned two continents, multiple federal courts, and prompted dozens of hearings in the aftermath of his removal.

The order from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis comes after she tried and failed for months to ascertain the Trump administration's plans to deport Abrego Garcia to a third country, after he was taken into ICE custody in late August.

"Since Abrego Garcia’s return from wrongful detention in El Salvador, he has been re-detained, again without lawful authority," Xinis said in an order Thursday. "For this reason, the Court will GRANT Abrego Garcia’s Petition for immediate release from ICE custody." 

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The order comes after Xinis last month used an evidentiary hearing to drill into a more foundational question, of whether the government had in fact obtained a final "order of removal" to deport Abrego Garcia from the U.S. to a third country — which she concluded Thursday that they had not.

"No such order of removal exists for Abrego Garcia," Xinis concluded in her order.

Xinis had said last month that without the order, Abrego Garcia would be "at a minimum" entitled to certain relief under Supreme Court precedent in Zadvydas v. Davis, which bars the government from indefinitely detaining migrants after removal issues have been ordered. 

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Lawyers for the Trump administration, meanwhile, repeatedly asked Xinis to dissolve an emergency order she handed down in August, which required Abrego Garcia to remain in U.S. immigration custody, and within 200 miles of her court. 

Abrego Garcia was transferred in September from an ICE detention center in Virginia to the ICE Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Philipsburg, Pa., where he remained detained until today's order.

The Justice Department is almost certain to appeal her order to a higher court, as they indicated in previous hearings. 

The Trump administration previously tried and failed to remove Abrego Garcia to the African countries of Liberia, Eswatini, Uganda and briefly, Ghana.

Xinis noted last month that the government cannot take any of those steps without the final notice of removal order.

"You’ve raised all these arguments, and they all depend on me having a withholding of removal order," Xinis said last month. "You can't ‘fake it ’til you make it.'" 

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.