A federal judge in Maryland, Judge Paula Xinis, has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda. The decision came after the administration attempted to remove the Salvadorian migrant, who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Judge Xinis cited a lack of assurances from Uganda regarding Garcia’s legal status there as the reason for the temporary block. The judge has ordered the administration to keep Garcia in the same ICE detention center in Virginia while the case is reviewed.
Abrego Garcia’s attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, filed an emergency motion after his client was taken into immigration custody at the ICE Field Office in Baltimore, following his appearance there as a condition of his pretrial release from criminal custody. The new filing asks the judge to block Garcia’s removal from the U.S. until his immigration case can proceed via proper channels, ensuring due process protections, including the right to a reasonable fear interview before deportation to a third country.
Judge Xinis expressed her intention to move quickly on the emergency request, directing Justice Department lawyers and Abrego Garcia’s attorneys to confer privately to establish a proposed briefing schedule, with Friday as a possible date for an evidentiary hearing. She emphasized that she would hold off on any decisions until after the hearing. Xinis also noted that she believed an extension of her current temporary restraining order might be necessary, given the administration’s stated plans to deport Garcia to Uganda, despite the preliminary nature of the information before her.
The judge highlighted the divergence between the plea offer provided to Garcia late last week — which would allow him to be sent to Costa Rica as a free individual in exchange for pleading guilty to criminal charges against him — and the lack of assurances from Uganda, the East African nation that agreed to accept migrants deported from the U.S. just days earlier. She pointed out that Uganda has not provided any known assurances that Garcia would not be harassed or sent back to El Salvador after deportation, unlike Costa Rica’s assurances of free living and residency papers or refugee status.
Crucially, the judge emphasized the significance of the contrast between the information from Costa Rica and the lack of details from Uganda, stating that the silence from Uganda