U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis has ordered the federal government not to remove Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia from the continental United States while he fights a potential deportation to Uganda.
According to Abrego Garcia’s lawyers, government officials attempted to coerce him into pleading guilty to criminal charges by threatening deportation to Uganda.
Abrego Garcia, a Maryland construction worker who was previously deported to El Salvador and later returned to the U.S. to face smuggling charges, was released from a Tennessee prison on Friday under a judge’s order. That order set the terms of his release pending a trial currently scheduled for January 2026.
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On Monday, during a check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Abrego Garcia was taken back into custody—this time by ICE. His attorneys are now fighting his deportation and seeking asylum in the U.S.
On Wednesday, Judge Xinis ruled that ICE cannot move Abrego Garcia more than 200 miles from her court’s jurisdiction in Maryland. She has set a tentative hearing for Oct. 6. Under the current timeline, the earliest he could be deported is Nov. 5.
Homeland Security officials argue that Abrego Garcia is subject to immediate deportation as a migrant not lawfully present in the U.S. He was one of more than 200 undocumented migrants deported to El Salvador in March. However, his case was unusual because a standing court order prohibited his return there after he convinced a judge that he feared for his safety in his country of birth.
After his return to the U.S., federal officials accused him of involvement in human trafficking, stemming from a 2022 traffic stop. Although he was neither arrested nor charged at the time, officials filed charges against him earlier this year.
