A federal judge on Thursday ordered the release of Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia from federal custody, delivering a sharp rebuke to the Trump administration in a case that has ricocheted across borders and courtrooms for nearly 10 months.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ruled that Abrego Garcia must be freed from the ICE Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania, saying the administration had failed to secure the required final notice of removal that would allow him to be deported to a third country, including several African nations previously floated by federal officials.
“Since Abrego Garcia’s return from wrongful detention in El Salvador, he has been re-detained, again without lawful authority,” Xinis said in her order. “For this reason, the Court will GRANT Abrego Garcia’s Petition for immediate release from ICE custody.”
Xinis had grilled Justice Department lawyers last month during a lengthy evidentiary hearing, pushing them to prove that a final removal order existed. DOJ attorney Drew Ensign argued that a 2019 immigration judge had effectively “meant” to issue such an order. Xinis dismissed that argument outright, stating, “No such order of removal exists for Abrego Garcia.”
The Justice Department is expected to appeal, as Ensign signaled in earlier proceedings.
The judge noted that without a final notice of removal, Abrego Garcia is “at a minimum” entitled to certain relief under the Supreme Court’s Zadvydas v. Davis ruling, which prevents indefinite detention when deportation efforts stall.
Abrego Garcia’s saga erupted in March, when he was deported to El Salvador in violation of a 2019 court order — an “administrative error,” Trump officials now concede. Xinis immediately ordered his return to the United States, triggering a months-long political and legal dispute.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia
Critics say the drawn-out battle has become a test of the administration’s willingness to push the limits of immigration enforcement and compliance with federal courts. Senior DHS and DOJ officials deny that, blasting Xinis and other judges overseeing deportation disputes for what they call judicial overreach.
“This order lacks any valid legal basis, and we will continue to fight this tooth and nail in the courts,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Thursday.
When Abrego Garcia was returned to the U.S. in June, he was promptly taken into custody in Nashville on human smuggling charges tied to a 2022 traffic stop. Officials later admitted the investigation began while he was still detained in El Salvador, raising fresh questions about how prosecutors secured the indictment. A Tennessee federal judge is currently weighing his motion to dismiss the case as vindictive and selective prosecution, with a hearing set for early next month.
Xinis also pressed Trump officials on why they refused to deport Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica, which had already offered assurances it would neither detain him nor send him back to El Salvador. The administration claimed the option was “off the table” but provided no evidence. Later filings suggest Costa Rica never backed out, deepening scrutiny of the government’s claims.
Thursday’s ruling follows repeated attempts by the administration to dissolve an emergency order Xinis issued in August requiring that Abrego Garcia remain in U.S. immigration custody and within 200 miles of her Maryland courtroom.
The new order allows him to reside with his brother in the U.S. while the Nashville case proceeds.
Trump officials have so far failed to deport him to Liberia, Eswatini, Uganda or briefly Ghana — all countries previously identified as potential destinations. In late November, Xinis reminded them the government can’t move forward on any of those plans without the final notice of removal.
“You’ve raised all these arguments, and they all depend on me having a withholding of removal order,” she told them. “You can’t ‘fake it ’til you make it.’”
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