An Obama-appointed federal judge has once again ruled in favor of suspected gang member and human trafficker Kilmar Abrego Garcia, giving him a lifeline he doesn't deserve.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration cannot re-detain Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national with alleged ties to MS-13, domestic abuse, and human smuggling, because a 90-day detention clock ran out.
Xinis issued an order blocking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from taking Abrego Garcia back into custody, concluding on her own that there’s no “viable plan” to deport him. The ruling is a jaw-dropping example of judicial overreach dressed up as due process.
Abrego Garcia has an American wife and child and has lived in Maryland for years, but he immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager. In 2019, an immigration judge ruled that he could not be deported to El Salvador because he faced danger there from a gang that had threatened his family. By mistake, he was deported there anyway last year.
Facing public pressure and a court order, President Donald Trump’s administration brought him back in June, but only after securing an indictment charging him with human smuggling in Tennessee. He has pleaded not guilty. Meanwhile, Trump officials have said he cannot stay in the U.S. In court filings, officials have said they intended to deport him to Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana, and Liberia.
We’ve covered Abrego Garcia’s alleged crimes before, but they’re worth repeating. The Trump administration found evidence that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13, a gang the federal government formally designated as a foreign terrorist organization. Two separate judges and administration officials all confirmed the MS-13 affiliation.
His own wife filed not one but two restraining orders against him for verbal and physical abuse. In 2022, he was caught trafficking immigrants. The Biden administration, in a move that should surprise absolutely no one, let him walk. He has since faced a second deportation, this time to several African nations proposed by Homeland Security: Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana, and Liberia.
Judge Xinis, apparently a fan of gang members accused of domestic abuse and human trafficking, wasn't impressed with those options. She wrote that the government "made one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success" and declared "there is no 'good reason to believe' removal is likely in the reasonably foreseeable future."
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"If this matter were actually about the law or due process, Kilmar Abrego Garcia would already be deported and would never set foot in this country again; Judge Xinis will not be satisfied until he is authorized to live in the United States forever,” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement
This is exactly the kind of judicial activism that makes a mockery of our judicial system. If there’s anyone who ought to be deported, it’s Kilmar Abrego Garcia, but because of Trump Derangement Syndrome, border enforcement has been kneecapped by rogue judges.
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