A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deportingKilmar Abrego Garciafor a second time – after he was wrongfully removed to El Salvador earlier this year. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland ruled from the bench on Monday, Aug. 25, that the government cannot deport Abrego Garcia until she can hold a hearing on his latest lawsuit challenging his deportation. Xinis' order came just hours after U.S. immigration agents detained Abrego Garcia when he reported to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore for what his attorneys had been told was a mandatory check-in. Agents detained him within 60 seconds of his arrival, said his attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg. Abrego Garcia's detention is the latest chapter in a case that started back in March when he was stopped near his home in Maryland and deported to aSalvadoran mega-prison. The case has fueled outrage over the Trump administration's hardline deportation policies. Abrego Garcia has spent more than five months in detention, including time in his native El Salvador at a prison known for its harsh conditions. Last week, he was released from criminal custody in Tennessee and returned to his home in the Washington suburb of Beltsville, Maryland. At the hearing on Monday, Xinis stressed that the government was "absolutely forbidden at this juncture" from removing Abrego Garcia from the United States. The government's attorney, Drew Ensign, said Abrego Garcia's deportation was not imminent and that it takes time to remove someone to another country. Still, the administration is adamant that he will not be allowed to remain in the United States. "ICE law enforcement arrested Kilmar Abrego Garcia & are processing him for deportation," the White House said in a social media post. "@POTUSis not going to allow this illegal alien, who is an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, & child predator to terrorize American citizens..." -@Sec_Noem." Abrego Garcia, who has repeatedly denied those claims, arrived at the ICE office Monday with his wife and brother and was quickly surrounded by a crowd of supporters chanting "Si se puede," Spanish for "Yes we can." He and his wife embraced in the building's lobby before proceeding through a security checkpoint. Sandoval-Moshenberg said his client is being held in a detention facilitiy in Virginia. U.S. officials have offered to deport him to Costa Rica if he pleads guilty to transporting migrants living illegally in the United States, his lawyers say. When he declined to enter a guilty plea, the U.S. government warned he could be deported to Uganda. Abrego Garcia's lawyers say they have entered plea discussions with the government to avoid deportation to Uganda, which they say would be "far more dangerous" than Costa Rica. "They're holding Costa Rica as a carrot and using Uganda as a stick," Sandoval-Moshenberg said. "They're weaponizing the immigration system in a way that's completely unconstitutional." Before his check-in with ICE, Abrego Garcia notified the government in writing that Costa Rica would be an acceptable country for the United States to send him after he received assurances from Costa Rica that he would be given refugee status there and would not be deported back to El Salvador, Sandoval-Moshenberg said. "For him to be removed to Costa Rica is not justice," Sandoval-Moshenberg said, "it is an acceptably less bad option." Xinis suggested during the hearing that, if Abrego Garcia is deported, federal law may require that he be sent to his country of choice, especially since Costa Rica has agreed to grant him refugee status and not send him back to El Salvador. Abrego Garcia also filed a second notice with the U.S. government saying he feared removal to Uganda because of human rights abuses in that country and the lack of assurances that Uganda would not send him back to El Salvador, Sandoval-Moshenberg said. Because of that notice, Abrego Garcia is entitled to an interview, Sandoval-Moshenberg said, and the U.S. government cannot remove him from the country until that interview is granted. Kilmar Abrego Garcia freed:Man at the center of high-profile immigration fight released from jail Abrego Garcia wasmistakenly deported and taken to the Terrorism Confinement Center,also known as CECOT, in Tecoluca, El Salvador, in March. The Trump administration has admitted in court documents that the deportation was a mistake, which it blamed it on an "administrative error." Abrego Garciaexperienced "severe beatings" and "psychological torture" in the notorious high-security prison, his lawyers said in a court filing last month. The filing also says that Abrego Garcia experienced "severe sleep deprivation" and nutrition so inadequate that he lost 31 pounds. Abrego Garcia has filed a federal lawsuit in Maryland seeking an order to ban deporting him anywhere unless he has had the chance to contest being sent there. Homeland Security SecretaryKristi Noemhas blamed "activist liberal judges" for blocking administration efforts to remove people living in the U.S. illegally who were suspected of committing crimes. "By ordering this monster loose on America's streets, this judge has shown a complete disregard for the safety of the American people," Noem said. "We will not stop fighting till this Salvadoran man faces justice and is OUT of our country." Abrego Garcia, asheetmetal worker living in suburban Washington, became the face of President Donald Trump's sweeping and controversial deportation tactics. Abrego Garcia entered the country illegally around 2012 as a teen. Immigration officials issued a final order of removal in 2019, but they said he could not be released to his home country of El Salvador because of credible fears of persecution by gangs in that country. Contributing: Amanda Lee Myers, USA TODAY; Reuters This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Kilmar Abrego Garcia: Judge pauses deportation; man detained in Va
