DOJ says Abrego Garcia must be detained and can ask for a bond hearing -- despite its own policy against immigration bond

Source: Law & Crime

Dec 15th, 2025, 4:33 pm


The Department of Justice is trying yet again to put wrongly deported Maryland father and accused human smuggler Kilmar Abrego Garcia back behind bars, arguing that if he disagrees with the decision, he can ask for a bond hearing — the same type of hearing the government has also argued is not actually allowed in cases like Abrego Garcia's.

As Law&Crime has previously reported, Abrego Garcia was deported in March from Maryland and imprisoned in El Salvador at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). The Trump administration, eventually admitting the deportation was due to "administrative error," was ordered to "facilitate" his return — and it carried out that return in June, weeks after securing a federal indictment in Tennessee on charges of human smuggling, allegedly stemming from a 2022 traffic stop. Abrego Garcia has claimed that the prosecution was brought vindictively because his civil case brought embarrassment to the U.S. government.

Last week, Maryland U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis granted Abrego Garcia's petition for release from ICE custody.

She slammed the Trump administration for holding him "without lawful authority," and for "affirmatively" misleading the court on Costa Rica's willingness to accept him as a refugee. She concluded that an order for his removal from the U.S. does not exist.

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/doj-says-abrego-garcia-must-be-detained-and-can-ask-for-a-bond-hearing-despite-its-own-policy-against-immigration-bond-hearings/