A U.S. federal judge on Wednesday halted the deportation of Salvadoran national Kilmar Ábrego until early October, after convening a hearing with Donald Trump administration officials for that time.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of the District of Maryland has scheduled a hearing for October 6 to rule on his habeas corpus petition.
Habeas corpus is a legal guarantee that allows any detained person to request that a judge review the legality of his or her detention.
Xinis has assured that this request will be resolved about 30 days after the October hearing.
It has also ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement(ICE), which is currently detaining him in the state of Virginia, to keep Kilmar Abrego within a 200-mile radius of his home state of Maryland.
Abrego’s defense has also filed a motion to reopen his immigration proceedings, vacate his deportation order and apply for asylum in the United States.
The judge is the same one who ordered the U.S. government to facilitate the return of Kilmar Ábrego from El Salvador, after he was mistakenly deported there.
This Monday, ICE agents detained Abrego at the immigration courts in Baltimore, Maryland, three days after he was released in Tennessee while he awaits trial on federal human trafficking charges and deportation proceedings. His prior release was authorized on the grounds that he was not a threat to the community and was not a flight risk.
This Saturday, Kilmar Abrego’s defense explained in a statement that the U.S. government was threatening to deport him to Uganda in order to get a plea deal that would allow him to be deported to Costa Rica instead.
Over the weekend, Abrego delivered two documents to the Administration:
One in which he designates Costa Rica as an “acceptable” country for his deportation, and another in which he expresses his “fear” of being sent to Uganda, as he has no guarantees as to what his situation will be in that country, according to EFE.
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