A judge ordered this Thursday released from the custody of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) a Kilmar Abrego García, the Salvadoran deported in March to the CECOT maximum security prison in El Salvador “by mistake.”
Federal Judge for the District of Maryland Paula Xinis decreed that Abrego be released “immediately” and assured that his detention occurred “without legal authority.”
The judge’s order means that Abrego will be allowed, at least temporarily, to return to his home in Maryland despite repeated statements by Trump Administration officials that he would never be free in the United States again.
Last August the same judge stopped his deportation to Uganda after being detained by ICE agents after turning himself in at a facility in Baltimore. Abrego had regained his freedom just three days before after more than five months of detention.
About Abrego a deportation order to Uganda was in force after having rejected an offer to be sentI go to Costa Rica in exchange for pleading guilty to human trafficking charges.
The judge is also the same one who in April ordered the US Government to will facilitate Abrego’s return from El Salvador, after being deported there by mistake.
Although the Trump Administration admitted that Ábrego’s deportation was an “administrative error”, the authorities have repeatedly accused of being affiliated with the MS-13 gang, an accusation that both he and his family strongly deny.
US officials have offered deport him to Costa Rica if he pleads guilty to human trafficking chargesaccording to his lawyers.
If he does not do so, Abrego would be deported to Ugandaa “much more dangerous” country, denounces its defense.