Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man wrongly deported to El Salvador earlier this year, has been released from a Tennessee prison. He can't be detained by immigration authorities, who had anticipated their willingness to do so as his case dominated headlines.
ABC News detailed that Abrego Garcia is on his way to Maryland from Tennessee, where he had been held since the Trump administration brought him back in June to face human smuggling charges.
His lawyers said this week that they hired a private security company to take him safely to Maryland. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ruled that the government must restore him to "his ICE Order of Supervision out of the Baltimore Field Office."
She noted that the order is necessary to "provide the kind of effective relief to which a wrongfully removed alien is entitled upon return." The government is also required to provide 72 hours' notice if it intends to deport Abrego Garcia to a third country, considering he can't be taken to El Salvador, where he fled from violence.
Back in July, Thomas Giles, an assistant director for ICE, said the government intended to detain him and deport him, potentially to Mexico or South Sudan.
Abrego Garcia, a longtime Maryland resident, was deported to El Salvador in March in violation of a 2019 immigration court order that protected him from removal to that country due to a credible fear of persecution.
The government described the March deportation earlier this week as a "one-off mistake" despite previously claiming it had been deliberate.
His legal team detailed the abuse he allegedly endured during a three-week detention at El Salvador's CECOT prison, including being ordered to kneel for nine hours straight and prevented from going to the bathroom.
Abrego Garcia has denied any gang affiliation, including to MS-13, and pleaded not guilty to the smuggling charges.
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