Judge blocks ICE from rearresting Kilmar Abrego Garcia for ‘foreseeable future’

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration has been playing games with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and issued a new order barring ICE from trying to rearrest him any time soon.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said the administration has had a good offer from Costa Rica to take Mr. Abrego Garcia but has refused to take it. Instead, the government has been searching, apparently without firm success, for an African nation that would take him.

Judge Xinis said given the government’s travails, it’s doubtful Mr. Abrego Garcia would be deported any time in the “reasonably foreseeable future.” So he can’t be rearrested or held in detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“Respondents have done nothing to show that Abrego Garcia’s continued detention in ICE custody is consistent with due process,” wrote Judge Xinis, an Obama appointee to the court in Maryland. “Respondents are enjoined from taking Petitioner Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia into ICE custody.”

Mr. Abrego Garcia, a citizen of El Salvador, is perhaps the most prominent illegal immigrant in the U.S., after his initial erroneous deportation last year back to his home country and his return — under pressure from Judge Xinis — to face a new criminal case accusing him of migrant smuggling.

His case has become a legal albatross for the Trump administration.

The Justice Department has argued both in the criminal case, pending in federal court in Tennessee and in the civil case before Judge Xinis that Mr. Abrego Garcia should be in detention.

Both courts have vigorously rebuffed that demand.

The administration argued it had the right to deport Mr. Abrego Garcia even though an immigration judge in 2019, while finding him deportable, never actually issued a specific order of removal.