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

The Salvadoran native was released from immigration detention on Dec. 11.

ByArthur Jones II and Armando Garcia

December 22, 2025, 1:01 PM

Judge to hear arguments over whether ICE can re-detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is barred from re-detaining Salvadoran native Kilmar Abrego García 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 García 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.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is released from immigration detention, his attorney says

Abrego Garcia was released from immigration detention on Dec. 11 after Judge Xinis found the government had detained him "without lawful authority." 

Xinis ordered Abrego Garcia's release in part because he had not been issued a formal order of removal during his immigration proceedings in 2019, when a judge also barred the government from deporting him to his native El Salvador due to his fear of persecution.

Following Abrego Garcia's release, an immigration judge "corrected" the error and added a removal order to his record, finding that it "was erroneously omitted." 

Abrego Garcia, who had been living in Maryland with his wife and children, was deported in March to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison, despite the 2019 court order barring his removal to that country, after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which he denies.

He was brought back to the U.S. in June to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee, after which Judge Xinis released him from ICE detention while he awaits trial. He is scheduled to go to trial on the Tennessee charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty, in January.

On Friday, his attorneys filed a motion seeking sanctions against the Trump administration for allegedly violating a court order that barred officials from making extrajudicial statements that could impact the case. After Abrego Garcia's release from ICE detention, Chief Border Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino called him an "alien smuggler" and "wife beater" on national TV, his attorneys said.