Salvadoran Abrego Garcia Is Released From US Detention

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran who prompted a legal showdown over immigration policy over the past several months, has been released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ruled on Dec. 11 that the U.S. government did not have the lawful authority to detain him at the immigration detention facility where he was being housed.

Garcia’s case made headlines this year after the man was accused of being a member of the notorious El Salvadoran transnational gang MS-13 and deported to his home country in March as part of a deal between the United States and El Salvador following the State Department’s designation of MS-13 as a foreign terrorist organization in February.

Garcia has denied this allegation, along with allegations of domestic abuse.

Garcia’s legal case has made national headlines as the Trump administration has made its enforcement against illegal immigrants a key component of its agenda.

Republicans and Democrats have clashed over federal immigration enforcement. In June, Democratic governors JB Pritzker of Illinois, Tim Walz of Minnesota, and Kathy Hochul of New York testified before the Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, where they said that they cooperate with ICE in removing criminal illegal immigrants but not illegal immigrants who abide by the law.

Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) accused the three governors of obstructing federal immigration enforcement by enacting policies that “shield criminal illegal aliens” from deportation.

One of President Donald Trump’s key campaign promises was to solve the problem of a large number of illegal immigrants flooding the United States, which he has described as a crisis.

Garcia was arrested on March 12 and sent to El Salvador along with over 200 other Venezuelan and Salvadoran nationals to a Terrorism Confinement Center (“CECOT”) as part of an agreement between the two countries.

In April, after a federal official said Garcia had been sent there due to an “administrative error,” Xinis ordered Garcia’s return to the United States.

Upon Garcia’s return in June, he was arrested on a human trafficking charge over a 2022 incident in Tennessee, where he was stopped for speeding while carrying 9 illegal immigrant passengers.

In August, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said he would be processed to be sent to Uganda, to which he expressed fear of being persecuted if he was sent there, and requested to be sent to Costa Rica.

DHS notified Garcia the next month that he would be sent to Eswatini, which again he expressed fear of being persecuted if he were sent there.

Then, in October, Deputy Assistant Director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, John Schultz, announced Garcia would be sent to Ghana, which was quickly rejected by the country’s foreign minister, Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa.

Later in October, Garcia was notified that he would be deported to Liberia.

Garcia had initially entered the United States illegally in 2011 and was arrested in 2019 by ICE officers after being identified as an MS-13 gang member and faced deportation.

A separate judge then determined that he would face danger if he returned to El Salvador and was thus allowed to remain in the United States.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt commented on the latest order to release Garcia in a Dec. 11 press briefing.

“The administration opposed this activism from a judge who is really acting as a judicial activist, which we’ve unfortunately seen in many cases across the country,” she said. “Abrego Garcia is present in our country illegally. He is a proven human trafficker, he is a proven gang member; the administration has evidence of that.”

The DOJ has said it will appeal the order.

Sam Dorman and Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.