A federal judge in Maryland signaled on Friday that she may soon issue a ruling that could delay the Trump administration’s order to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a third country quickly if he is released next week from U.S. Marshals’ custody in Tennessee.
Judge Paula Xinis, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, said she was “deeply concerned” that, absent a court order, the Department of Homeland Security would immediately arrange for Abrego Garcia’s deportation to an undisclosed country before he could have a chance to challenge the removal.
Abrego Garcia is a Salvadoran national who was deported to his home country in March despite a court order saying he could be deported anywhere but El Salvador.
Lawyers for the Justice Department argued in court on Friday that Xinis had lost her jurisdiction over the case, which began as a bid by Abrego Garcia’s lawyers to have him returned to the United States from a megaprison in El Salvador. With the illegal immigrant and accused MS-13 gang member back on U.S. soil, the DOJ lawyers said, the case before Xinis in Maryland was now moot.
Xinis disagreed, and reportedly grew frustrated with the DOJ lawyers when they declined to say what DHS plans to do with Abrego Garcia if Immigration and Customs Enforcement takes him back into custody.
Abrego Garcia is presently behind bars in Tennessee, awaiting trial for human smuggling charges. But on Wednesday, a district judge will consider whether to agree with the magistrate judge who already ordered Abrego Garcia to be released on bail ahead of his trial.
ICE officers would take Abrego Garcia into custody immediately upon his release in Tennessee and begin removal proceedings, the Trump administration has said.
Where exactly Abrego Garcia would be sent remains unclear, however. ICE officials said they may deport him to South Sudan or Mexico. Government attorneys have also said they may ask an immigration judge to reopen the proceedings that won him a withholding of removal order for El Salvador in 2019; that order prevented Abrego Garcia, who entered the country illegally and was found by an immigration judge to have credible ties to MS-13, from being sent to El Salvador.
The Trump administration could attempt to have that order reversed so Abrego Garcia could simply be returned home.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers fought this week to have Xinis order their client returned to Maryland, where he was living with his wife and child for years, so he could pursue due process to fight deportation to a third country, including by claiming fear of persecution in a dangerous country such as South Sudan.
His legal team requested that Xinis order between three and 10 days for Abrego Garcia to contest his removal if he is released into ICE custody next week.
The Supreme Court has already weighed in on a separate case regarding deportations to South Sudan, and the Trump administration notched a victory that could prove relevant to Abrego Garcia’s legal battle.
SUPREME COURT LIKELY SEALED ABREGO GARCIA’S DEPORTATION FATE, EXPERTS SAY
A majority of the justices said the third-country deportations to Africa were legal and told the Boston-based district judge who had blocked them that he had no authority to continue doing so after the district judge attempted to stall the removals a second time.
Xinis indicated on Friday that she would consider requiring that DHS provide a 48-hour window for Abrego Garcia to receive notice of its plans for his deportation, should ICE take him into custody.
