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You are here: Home / Immigration / Breaking News: Judge Orders That Kilmar Abrego Garcia Be Released

Breaking News: Judge Orders That Kilmar Abrego Garcia Be Released

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ETA:

BREAKING: Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been released from immigration detention after a federal judge's order Thursday, his attorney's office says.

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— Bruce Little (@brucedlittle.bsky.social) December 11, 2025 at 6:26 PM


Per the Associated Press:

… Abrego Garcia’s attorney’s office confirmed he was released just before 5 p.m., the deadline the judge gave the government for an update on Abrego Garcia’s release. His attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, earlier told The Associated Press that Abrego Garcia plans to return to Maryland, where he has an American wife and child and where he has lived for years after originally immigrating to the U.S. illegally as a teenager.

Abrego Garcia had been held at Moshannon Valley Processing Center about 115 miles (185 kilometers) northeast of Pittsburgh.

—

HUGE. Judge Xinis grants the writ of habeas corpus and orders that the government "SHALL release [Kilmar] Abrego Garcia from ICE custody immediately."

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— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) December 11, 2025 at 10:57 AM

🚨Judge Xinis finds that, incredibly, Mr. Abrego Garcia was never ordered deported in 2019. She notes that every since this saga began all the way back in March, the government has NEVER been able to produce any evidence that the immigration judge actually issued a removal order.

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— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) December 11, 2025 at 11:13 AM

Here is the full text what the immigration judge ordered in 2019. As Judge Xinis notes, none of these three things include an order of removal.
The government tried to argue that the withholding grant was "implicitly" a removal order, but the law requires an explicit one.

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— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) December 11, 2025 at 11:16 AM


Judge Xinis also alternatively finds that the government is not detaining him to execute a removal order — because if they did want to deport him they could have sent him to Costa Rica any time since August but have refused to do so (and lied about why) because the admin wants to send him to Africa.

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— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) December 11, 2025 at 11:20 AM

Full opinion here. Judge Xinis is clearly hopping mad with the government's repeated refusals to comply with her requests to be forthright about the situation, and suggests she will take it into account in pending sanctions motions. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us…

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— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) December 11, 2025 at 11:24 AM

===

In the convoluted, never-ending saga of the wrongfully deported and then indicted Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a federal judge in Maryland this morning ordered his immediate release from ICE custody — on grounds that are tinged with the bitterest of ironies. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/judge…

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— David Kurtz (@davidkurtz.bsky.social) December 11, 2025 at 1:52 PM

… After Abrego Garcia was released from custody in his pending criminal case, ICE quickly took him back into custody and made a big show of preparing to deport him to an ever-changing third country somewhere in Africa. But upon closer examination by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, the administration’s plan never panned out and began to resemble a scheme to keep Abrego Garcia detained indefinitely — punishment for having successfully challenged his wrongful deportation and winning at the Supreme Court.

The administration’s bad faith extended to Xinis herself, repeatedly violating her orders as she sought testimony from officials with knowledge of the plans for Abrego Garcia’s removal. It was an extension of the clash between Xinis and the executive branch that began when Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador in March in violation of a immigration judge’s withholding order that he could not be deported to his home country because of the threats he faced there.

But something else had been lurking in the background throughout the habeas case — and in the civil case before it that sought his return to the United States after his wrongful deportation: the failure of the Trump administration to produce a final order of removal from an immigration judge directing that Abrego Garcia be deported to El Salvador in the first place.

A final order of removal was the legal underpinning for the administration’s actions in both cases. The administration represented that a final order of removal existed, but throughout the litigation across two cases it never produced one. It only produced the withholding order, arguing that it in effect was the final order of removal. Xinis rejected that argument today.

As a result, ICE had no basis to detain Abrego Garcia or to continue to detain him. But the irony — befitting a Greek tragedy — is that if there was never a final order of removal in the first place, then Abrego Garcia should never have been on whatever removal list the government kept that led to his deportation and imprisonment in El Salvador in March. No immigration judge had ever ordered his removal, Xinis concluded. So his wrongful deportation was doubly wrong: It violated the withholding order, but even more fundamentally, Abrego Garcia wasn’t ever under order to be deported.

The related irony is that the pending criminal human smuggling case against him — ginned up by the administration to save face — would never have come about either if not for the doubly wrong deportation in March and Abrego Garcia’s successful challenge of it. His motion to dismiss the case because of vindictive prosecution is being actively litigated in Nashville, much of it under seal in recent days.

In granting Abrego Garcia’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus, Xinis gave the Trump administration until 5 p.m. ET today to notify her of his release.

Reader Interactions

105Comments

  3. 3.

    bbleh

    Let’s see, what comes next?
    — Yet another semi-coherent rant by the Orange Guy about an OBAMA judge, a WOMAN(!), blatantly interfering with NATIONAL SECURITY something something TREASON something.
    — Sneering press announcement by Noem or Bondi or some spokesdroid littered with inflammatory and utterly unproven allegations about terrorism, narcotics, and whatever else they can come up with.
    — Frantic last-minute appeal papers riddled with inconsistencies and errors filed by DHS and/or DOJ.
    — Immediate re-arrest by ICE or CBP or FBI or some compliant local sheriff on flimsy-to-nonexistent (ie “just cuz”) grounds.
    — Okay, most likely all of the above.

    Even the Danes are shaking their heads …

  4. 4.

    Scout211

    the failure of the Trump administration to produce a final order of removal from an immigration judge directing that Abrego Garcia be deported to El Salvador in the first place.

    Wow.

  6. 6.

    Gin & Tonic

    Not a good day in court for them, as a grand jury has reportedly (again) declined to indict Letitia James. Looks like they can’t even indict the proverbial ham sandwich.

  7. 7.

    Professor Bigfoot

    Now let’s see if that poor man actually is released.

    I expect these villains to concoct something– or just outright to say “you want him out, come and break him out. otherwise we’re keeping him”

  8. 8.

    Scout211

    And more Trump DOJ fail.

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A grand jury declined for a second time to re-indict New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday, refusing to resurrect a mortgage fraud prosecution encouraged by President Donald Trump, according to a person familiar with the matter.

    It’s another major blow to the Justice Department after the dismissal of earlier charges against James and another longtime Trump foe, former FBI Director James Comey, in a stunning rebuke of the Trump administration’s efforts to prosecute the president’s political opponents.

    Third time’s a charm laughable failure.

  10. 10.

    RaflW

    Grand Jury also declined the ham sandwich kerfuffle the Trump Admin whipped up over Leticia James. So score another “L” for the legal ‘team’ over there in Trumplandia.

    eta: I shoulda read the thread before poasting.

  12. 12.

    PaulWartenberg

    All because trump made it personal to punish Kilmar Abrego Garcia. If he had just left it to the DOJ lawyers, this might never has escalated the way it did. But trump wanted to make an example of Abrego Garcia, wanted to paint him as a violent criminal, and pursued every fake narrative and falsified every legal claim in the process.

  15. 15.

    cain

    @Baud: I also can’t believe this thing is not butter but parkay.

    More seriously, the govt is going to be pissed that they’ve been denied and is going to try something else.

    Noem is looking more like a loser given today’s meeting with congress.

  16. 16.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Judge Xinis finds that, incredibly, Mr. Abrego Garcia was never ordered deported in 2019.

    Trying to remember who was POTUS then.

  19. 19.

    Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)

    The entire maladministration is filled with sadistic, malicious mofos.

    Who are fortunately astonishingly incompetent.

    Imagine what these fascists could achieve if they were actually good at the jobs they have been given.

  20. 20.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Baud: I suspect that the ham sandwich doctrine came about because prosecutors have a certain amount of credibility with grand juries, thanks to decades of copaganda, and the First Felon’s crack (headed) legal team managed to piss away all their credibility in less than a year.

  21. 21.

    Scout211

    Yesterday:

    Judge orders Trump to end California National Guard troop deployment in Los Angeles

    U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco granted a preliminary injunction sought by California officials who opposed President Donald Trump’s extraordinary move to use state Guard troops without the governor’s approval to further his immigration enforcement efforts. But he also put the decision on hold until Monday.

    Today:

    Trump administration creates new militarized zone in California along southern US border

    The US’s southern border is poised to become more militarized following an announcement by Trump administration officials that armed forces would now oversee 760 acres of public land for a three-year period.

    The US Department of Interior said in a statement that jurisdiction over this acreage – located in California’s San Diego and Imperial counties – would be transferred to the US navy “to establish a National Defense Area to support ongoing border security operations”.

  23. 23.

    Captain C

    @Marleedog: I would like to see a judge in this sort of case put the government’s representative attorneys in his clink until they comply.  Or until their contempt trial, which, oh my, looks like it can’t be scheduled for a couple weeks at least.

  24. 24.

    Captain C

    @Scout211: It’s too bad that in cases like this a judge can’t declare the goverment a vexatious litigant and require permission before filing, well, anything.

  26. 26.

    tobie

    The Trump admin has done everything to obstruct, delay, distract, and conceal requested information from the court. Judge Xinis was tenacious in insisting on answers and documents. She dotted every i and crossed every t. This must have been hell for Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his family but the decision had to be watertight. I just hope the 6 SCOTUS InJustices don’t overturn it in yet another instance of pure, lawless partisanship.

  29. 29.

    Gin & Tonic

    Proposed Indiana gerrymandering fails.

    So much winning, you’ll get tired of all the winning.

  30. 30.

    Gretchen

    Congressional hearing with Noem this morning: one rep said he was tired of her lying, Benny Johnson said he didn’t want to file perjury charges and kept asking her FBI guy to tell us where Antifa has its headquarters and how many members it has, said surely you wouldn’t make these assertions to us without proof, would you? Asked if she deported any veterans, she said no, they started zoom with Purple Heart veteran deported to Korea, then asked if she’d give a dispensation for the landscaper with three Marine sons. She said she had to leave for another meeting, was loudly heckled on the way out, and then Moskowitz found that the other meeting was cancelled and she lied about that too. Also pressed on defying court orders about turning planes around. Pretty ugly for her. Maybe it will start to dawn on her dim little brain that this won’t end well for her.

  33. 33.

    Belafon

    @Baud: The article needs to explicitly spell out the constitutional protections a Senator enjoys, which overrides laws such as the UCMJ.

  35. 35.

    wjca

    @Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): Who are fortunately astonishingly incompetent.

    Imagine what these fascists could achieve if they were actually good at the jobs they have been given.

    That’s my biggest concert about Trump finally kicking off.  Vance shows signs of not only being massively more competent (yeah, damn low bar), but probably appointing much more competent people in pursuit of the same appalling agenda.

  36. 36.

    Baud

    Via reddit

    Federal prosecutors in the U.S. moved to drop charges in a long-running international soccer bribery case on Tuesday, days after President Donald Trump received the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize.

     

    The news has prompted scrutiny online, though there is no evidence of any connection between the award and prosecutors’ move to dismiss the charges

  39. 39.

    Another Scott

    @wjca: Dunno.

    It seems like the competent MAGA folks are few and far between.

    I don’t see any Bill Barrs or Jeff Sessionses or … this time around.

    When even Jamie Dimon is saying that (WARNING – TheHill) he’s not cooperating with 47, the worm seems to have turned.

    We’ll see.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  40. 40.

    Marleedog

    no evidence of any connection between the award and prosecutors’ move to dismiss the charges

    Pull my other one.

  43. 43.

    cmorenc

    Welp: it is now 5:02 pm – did the feds release Garcia?  Or did they simply decline to follow the order or move Garcia out of district in defiance of the Court Order?

  53. 53.

    Captain C

    @Gin & Tonic: I’m pretty sure Baud’s autobiography, Pants are Tyranny: the Baud Story is right at the top of the bestseller list* and has been for months.

    *May not actually be the FTFNYT bestseller list.  Or any reputable one.

  55. 55.

    Geminid

    @Gin & Tonic: Indiana’s Senate has 50 members– 40 Republicans and 10 Democrats. Gerrymander advocates needed a 26-24 majority to approve the map passed by the House, so at least 16 Republican Senators must have defected.

     

    @Princess:

  61. 61.

    LauraInNC

    @Geminid: I wonder if it was an honorable sort of defection or if they could see the writing on the wall with narrowing their margins.  If I recall correctly, they didn’t want to vote on this at all, at first.  Some state senators reported being threatened.

  64. 64.

    Shalimar

    @schrodingers_cat: The obvious joke is everyone she has slept with bought a copy to see if they were in it.  I’m a lot more disgusted with Lizza and RFK, Jr. and Olbermann than with her so I do feel bad for making that misogynistic joke.

  65. 65.

    dm

    Do you have to be a US citizen to serve in the House of Representatives? Garcia should run for Congress.

  66. 66.

    BC in Illinois

    @Captain C:

    @Gin & Tonic: I’m pretty sure Baud’s autobiography, Pants are Tyranny: the Baud Story is right at the top of the bestseller list* and has been for months.

    *May not actually be the FTFNYT bestseller list.  Or any reputable one.

    Have you checked the FIFA bestseller list?

  67. 67.

    Fair Economist

    @Bruce K in ATH-GR: If I were on a grand jury in an honest governmental system, I would give the prosecution the benefit of the doubt because I’d expect the trial jury to acquit if there weren’t good evidence, and because I wouldn’t expect the prosecution to waste everybody’s time if they didn’t have a reasonable suspicion and decent evidence. But if I were on a grand jury handling a Trump administration proposed indictment, I’d have to wonder if the charges were fake or for political reasons.

    If the trial itself is intended as punishment, then the grand jury has to take up the trial jury’s role of demanding evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.

  68. 68.

    Geminid

    @Shalimar: Yes, people are quick to pin the scarlet “A” on women, but it’s not the same when it comes to men. This basically is patriarchal framing, but I think not all women are free of it.

  70. 70.

    trollhattan

    @Shalimar:

    Regardless of her sexual antics, burying the story so as to not affect the election is fucking treasonous. “Oh, I’m just a journalist.” M-hmm.

  71. 71.

    Miss Bianca

    @Shalimar: don’t feel bad. If anyone deserves to be the butt of misogynistic humor, it’s her. (Plus, *I* thought  it was funny, so it *can’t* be misogynistic, right?)/

  72. 72.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    @Captain C: “It’s too bad that in cases like this a judge can’t declare the goverment a vexatious litigant and require permission before filing, well, anything”

     

    Should try, anyway.

    And demand a $1B “surety bond” with their filings, in CASH, to be forfeited if their filings are frivolous or if they lie about stuff.

  73. 73.

    zhena gogolia

    @schrodingers_cat: I mentioned on here that I tried to read the excerpt from it that was in Vanity Fair, but it is SO BADLY WRITTEN that even my desire for salacious details couldn’t overcome my nausea. And there are no salacious details. She thinks she’s Joan Didion or something.

  74. 74.

    trollhattan

    Meanwhile, in the falling upward files.

    The White House is quietly moving to get the U.S. Senate to confirm Lindsey Halligan as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, MS NOW has learned.

    Without any White House announcement or fanfare, Halligan submitted her confirmation questionnaire to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. MS NOW obtained a copy of Halligan’s questionnaire.

    In a statement to MS NOW, the White House confirmed the submission of Halligan’s questionnaire. “She’s the president’s nominee,” said press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “It is our hope that she is confirmed and submitting her questionnaire is a part of that process.”

    The push for confirmation comes after a federal judge dismissed indictments that Halligan secured against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey, ruling that she was improperly appointed by President Donald Trump and lacked the legal authority to prosecute anyone.

    They just can’t quit her.

  78. 78.

    Suzanne

    Speaking of Nuzzi….. Nate Silver dunked on Ryan Lizza for letting his dick lead him into bad decisions today on Xhitter. LOL. Seriously, the dude is in his fifties and deserves every bit of mockery at his expense.

  79. 79.

    WTFGhost

    @Baud: As a person who is interested in the law, I find a semi-prurient desire to know if the UCMJ might protect Kelly, even from the rulings of the OLC.

    Republicans seem to own the OLC; they can get them to render an opinion reasoned from the desired outcome. I know the JAGs wouldn’t approve of Trump’s crazy plan, so I know it’s probably the OLC being abused. The OLC opinion is then (metaphorically speaking) shoved down the throats of the JAGs (or so I assume)[1].

    Okay, but, no matter what the OLC says, no matter how they try to turn it into Benedict Arnold-level treason, Kelly just quoted the UCMJ, and in a sane world, that means the OLC’s civilian law opinion is moot, this is a UCMJ-thing.

    I like to imagine Trump acting like Yosemite Sam, when someone’s rights win out over his abuse of powers.

    [1] that is, I assume it was shoved down their throats, that the shoving and throats were metaphorical, and… seriously, I don’t put anything past the Trump administration.

  80. 80.

    schrodingers_cat

    I haven’t shared music in a long time, this is the haunting melody I am listening to right now. You can see the rugged countryside (western ghats, Sahyadris) from my birth state of Maharashtra

    Akercha ha tula dandavat

    (My last goodbye to you)

    Music composed by Lata Mangeshkar and sung by her too

    (In the movie, they have to leave because their village is under attack.)

  82. 82.

    Shalimar

    @Suzanne: Lizza should also feel horrible that his dick and Robert Kennedy, Jr.’s dick were trying to get into the same thing.  He’s only one degree of separation from sticking his dick in a rotting whale head.

  84. 84.

    Baud

    The Pentagon did not conduct a routine investigation into the impact of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s disclosure of sensitive military information in a group chat on Signal earlier this year and whether it damaged national security – in part because Hegseth never authorized it, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

  87. 87.

    Suzanne

    @Shalimar:

    He’s only one degree of separation from sticking his dick in a rotting whale head. 

    Wait. Wait. Did RFK stick his dick into the whale head?!?! Was the brain worm involved?!

  89. 89.

    JoeyJoeJoe

    @Marcopolo: I initially posted this elsewhere, but a little backstory on at least one thing that influenced the vote:

     

    ”One of the State Senate Republicans may have been a Yes, but I believe has a daughter with Down syndrome, and after the Oval Office felon referred to Tim Walz as “retarded” (his word), the State Senator declared he was a No.

    It’s nice to see asshole behavior get the comeuppance that it deserves.”

  93. 93.

    trollhattan

    @PaulWartenberg:

    “I want glass ketchup bottles, not this plastic shit, do you hear? Glass!!!”

    “Uh, why, sir?”

    “None of your fucking business. Do it!”

    Half of staff resigns that night.

  94. 94.

    Suzanne

    @Shalimar: I am typically down for a good ol’ round of IT WOULD BE IRRESPONSIBLE NOT TO SPECULATE — especially when it is speculating about the most terrible people in the world. But this is grossing me right TF out.

    RFK grosses me out. Like, actively. I really struggle to understand how any women let him near them. Just….. God. Ew.

    Drier than the Sahara.

  95. 95.

    WTFGhost

    @Suzanne: Earlier, I opined that he might be manic, and that might be the basis of the appeal. When a manic person is into you, they’re really into you, and you get this big blaze of positive energy from them.

  96. 96.

    Jackie

    Surprisingly Sen. Dan Sullivan joined with Dems! Politico reported.

    Senate Republicans on Thursday rejected a Democratic proposal to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year. Notably, both Republican senators from Alaska stood out, as both broke party lines and voted with Democrats.

    Alaska Republican Dan Sullivan’s vote Thursday in favor of Democrats’ bill to extend expiring Obamacare subsidies was the biggest surprise in a day that otherwise went according to script in the Senate, wrote Robert King.

    But Sullivan’s vote, along with that of fellow Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, Maine’s Susan Collins and Missouri’s Josh Hawley, for the Democratic bill showed that a fair number of Republicans are worried about letting the subsidies, which made Obamacare plans free for many low-income people and reduced premiums for others, go away at year’s end.

     

  97. 97.

    Jackie

    What will happen with CNN? I know they have a mixed bag of correspondents, but mostly they try for neutrality. Ted Turner sure didn’t foresee this, I’m pretty sure:

    Colby Hall: “Imagine if Hunter Biden were helping assemble billions in Saudi and Qatari financing so a progressive media owner could take over Fox News while quietly assuring the White House that he planned to replace hosts and reshape the network’s direction.”

    “The national reaction would be immediate. Congressional hearings, emergency ethics panels, a weeklong media frenzy.”

    A long opinion piece from Mediate.

  100. 100.

    Bupalos

    I’ve felt for some time that Trump’s decline became irreversible once his founding myth was punctured by the Epstein pin. Today kind of feels like the point where enough air has drained from this inflated duck that every halfway competent political actor begins to adjust to the reality of his lameness.

  101. 101.

    Msb

    Oh, thank God.

    And damn everyone who had anything to do with creating the hell that this poor man has been forced to endure.

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