Federal judge rules ICE cannot detain Abrego Garcia again

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia again, now that the 90-day window in which he could be deported has closed.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland, an Obama appointee, said the Trump administration was attempting to “rewrite the history of this case," in their latest attempt to detain and deport Abrego Garcia, who has been charged with human trafficking, and noted that the defendant has spent ample time in ICE custody already.

Xinis said the 90-day window of removal for Abrego Garcia closed long ago and there was no reason to believe that the Trump administration would successfully deport Abrego Garcia immediately. She also said there was no legal basis to keep him detained in the meantime. 

“The court easily concludes that there is no ‘good reason to believe’ removal is likely in the reasonably foreseeable future,” she wrote in the 10-page decision. "[Federal officials] have done nothing to show that Abrego Garcia’s continued detention in ICE custody is consistent with due process.”

Abrego Garcia is a Salvadoran migrant who was deported to his home country last year despite a 2019 court order that barred his return to El Salvador because of fears of persecution and gang violence.

The Salvadoran has told immigration officials that he would prefer to be sent to Costa Rica if he must be deported, which Xinis noted Tuesday that the Trump administration has ignored. 

"Since August 2025, Respondents have refused to procure Abrego Garcia’s immediate removal to Costa Rica in favor of phantom removals to three (maybe four) African countries," Xinis wrote in her order. "Indeed, since Abrego Garcia secured his release from criminal custody in August 2025, Respondents have made one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success.

“At the same time, Respondents purposely—and for no reason—ignored the one country that has consistently offered to accept Abrego Garcia as a refugee, and to which he agrees to go," she added.

Abrego Garcia's lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said his client still prefers to be sent to Costa Rica and urged the Trump administration to agree to send the Salvadoran there instead of appealing the order, according to The Hill. 

“In her decision today, [Judge Xinis] recognized that if the government were truly trying to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia from the United States, they would have sent him to Costa Rica long before today," he said. "We hope the government does not appeal this order, and instead finally comes to the table in good faith to work out the details of a removal plan to Costa Rica.”