Federal judge forbids Trump to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia while legal defense proceeds

A federal judge issued a ruling temporarily blocking the Trump administration from deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia after returning him from a terrorist prison in El Salvador to face human trafficking charges.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said Wednesday that Garcia would be allowed to argue against his deportation to Uganda in an evidentiary hearing on Oct. 6 and that she would issue a ruling within 30 days of that hearing.

‘It is insane that sanctuary politicians chose to glorify and stand with an MS-13 gang member over the safety of American citizens.’

Garcia’s attorney also argued Monday that he should be allowed to reapply for asylum protections after he was returned to the U.S. by the Trump administration.

Xinis did not order Garcia’s release and said that should be determined by an immigration judge.

Garcia’s attorney has claimed that the Trump administration threatened to deport him to Uganda unless he agreed to plead guilty to the trafficking charges.

The Trump administration has accused Garcia of being a member of the infamous criminal MS-13 gang, but his family and attorney deny the claims. At one point, President Donald Trump presented a photograph of tattoos on Garcia’s knuckles that he claimed were symbols for MS-13.

“This is the hand of the man that the Democrats feel should be brought back to the United States, because he is such ‘a fine and innocent person,'” the president wrote.

On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security released a defiant message about the case.

“Kilmar Abrego Garcia is not and will never be a Maryland Man — he is a criminal illegal alien from El Salvador and public safety threat. It is insane that sanctuary politicians chose to glorify and stand with an MS-13 gang member over the safety of American citizens,” the statement reads.

“[President Donald] Trump and [DHS Sec. Kristi Noem] are not going to allow this illegal alien — who is an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator — to terrorize American citizens any longer,” the statement concludes.

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Garcia had been the poster boy for Democrats’ opposition to the president’s mass deportation efforts, but some have quietly backed off of the case after further criminal accusations surfaced.

Judge Xinis has issued many rulings against the Trump administration and was nominated to the court by former President Barack Obama.

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