In a victory in his fight against the government’s drive to deport Kilmar Ábrego García, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland ruled Feb. 17 that he cannot be taken back into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. This means he will remain a free man for now.
Ábrego García, a 30-year-old construction apprentice and member of SMART Local 100, was arrested on March 12 while driving home from work. He was illegally deported to El Salvador where he was imprisoned in the notorious high-security CECOT prison and tortured. After the U.S. government was forced to return him to the U.S., he was incarcerated on trumped-up charges of human trafficking. He was jailed for 275 days and freed Dec. 11.
Even after his release, he continued to face the criminal vindictiveness of the Department of Justice, which sought to deport him to Africa — Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana or Liberia — all countries where he has no family, friends or other connections. These efforts played out in court for months until Xinis said, “The government made one empty threat after another,” and ordered his release.
Ábrego García’s lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said the government tried “one trick after another to try to get him redetained.” The government’s goal has always been to make an example of him and punish him for refusing to take a plea deal and setting an example by his fight for justice.
He and his lawyer say that if he can’t win the right to stay in the U.S., he is willing to go to Costa Rica, whose government has agreed to accept him. So far the U.S. government refuses to agree.