A federal judge on Monday temporarily barred the Trump administration from deporting Kilmar Abrego Garica to Uganda, pending a further hearing, NBC News reported.
The temporary reprieve from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis during a hearing on Monday afternoon came quickly after Abrego was detained on Monday morning when he reported to immigration authorities in Maryland, following his release from criminal custody in Tennessee on Friday. Before his release from criminal custody, the government offered him a plea deal that would have resulted in his deportation to Costa Rica, which, like his birth country of El Salvador, is a Spanish-speaking country in Central America. But after his release, the government said it intended to deport him to the African nation of Uganda. His lawyers then filed a new lawsuit in Maryland to challenge his latest detention and impending removal.
Abrego had been living in Maryland when the government illegally sent him to El Salvador in March, despite a 2019 court order that barred his removal to that country for his fear of persecution there. The U.S. government resisted court orders to return him until June, when it brought him to Tennessee to face charges of unlawfully transporting undocumented immigrants. He pleaded not guilty.
Xinis, an Obama appointee, is the judge who initially ordered his U.S. return.
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