ICE barred from re-detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia through Christmas holiday [View all]

Source: ABC News

POLITICS
ICE barred from re-detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia through Christmas holiday

By Arthur Jones II and Armando Garcia ABCNews
Monday, December 22, 2025 3:07PM
ABC News Live

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is barred from re-detaining Salvadoran native Kilmar Abrego Garca through the Christmas holiday, the federal judge in his immigration case said Monday.

In a hearing in Maryland, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ruled that Abrego Garca will remain free of federal custody through the holiday.

Abrego Garcia's lawyers had sought a temporary restraining order to keep ICE from re-detaining Abrego Garcia while the government attempts to deport him to Liberia or another country.

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Read more: https://abc13.com/post/ice-barred-detaining-kilmar-abrego-garcia-christmas-holiday/18307179/

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https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/abrego-garcia-can-remain-free-while-judge-considers-arguments-for-returning-him-to-immigration-custody

Abrego Garcia can remain free while judge considers arguments for returning him to immigration custody

Nation Dec 22, 2025 2:54 PM EST

GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — A federal judge on Monday questioned whether government officials could be trusted to follow orders barring them from taking Kilmar Abrego Garcia into immigration custody or deporting him. ... U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis noted that Abrego Garcia was already deported without legal authority once and said she was “growing beyond impatient” with government misrepresentations in her court. “Why should I give the respondents the benefit of the doubt?” she asked, referring to the government attorneys.

Abrego Garcia’s mistaken deportation and imprisonment in El Salvador in March has galvanized both sides of the immigration debate. The Trump administration initially fought efforts to bring him back to the U.S. but eventually complied after the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in. He returned to the U.S. in June, only to face an arrest warrant on human smuggling charges in Tennessee.

Xinis ordered Abrego Garcia released from immigration custody on Dec. 11 after determining that the government had no viable plan for deporting him. She followed that with a temporary restraining order the next day barring Immigration and Customs Enforcement from immediately taking him back into custody. The Monday hearing was to determine if the temporary restraining order should be dissolved.

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