Kilmar Ábrego García, the Salvadoran migrant who was returned to the United States after an irregular deportation to El Salvador, was released Thursday from an immigration center in the state of Pennsylvania by order of a judge, his lawyer told EFE.
Attorney Sean Hecker confirmed the release hours after Paula Xinis, a federal judge in the state of Maryland, ordered Abrego’s “immediate” release from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility because his detention was “without lawful authority.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia Released from ICE Jail
The Salvadoran, a resident of Maryland, was deported to El Salvador in March and imprisoned in the Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), the maximum security prison built by the government of Nayib Bukele, despite the fact that a U.S. judge had prohibited his deportation.
After an arduous legal battle with the Donald Trump administration, which accuses him of having participated in human trafficking and of being a gang member, Abrego was returned to the United States in June to face federal charges.
Until now, Abrego Garcia was being held at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania, and the U.S. government was looking for a way to deport him to an African country since it cannot send him back to El Salvador.
The magistrate found that “he has been detained by ICE for removal to a third country without a lawful removal order”.
“The conduct of the defendants (the U.S. Government) in recent months belies that his detention was primarily for the purpose of effecting removal, which further reinforces the idea that Abrego Garcia should not remain in detention,” Xinis wrote.
Although he was released from ICE custody, the Salvadoran is still subject to pretrial release imposed by a Tennessee judge, pending a human trafficking trial.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that the Trump administration plans to appeal Xinis’ decision.
“The White House and the Administration object to the activism of a judge who is actually acting as a judicial activist, something that, unfortunately, we have seen in many cases across the country,” the spokeswoman explained.
Abrego, 30, is a Salvadoran citizen residing in Maryland who entered the United States irregularly as a teenager. He has a U.S. wife and children.
In 2019, an immigration judge ruled that he could not be deported to El Salvador because of the danger he faced there from a gang.
However, the Trump Administration similarly deported him to the Central American country, and he subsequently had to be returned to the United States by court order.
His case has become emblematic for immigrant advocacy organizations in denouncing Trump’s anti-immigrant policies.
Filed under: Kilmar Ábrego García released
With information from EFE
