Judge tells ICE: not so fast — Abrego Garcia stays out of custody through Christmas

ABC News, Politico, and CNN contributed to this report.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is spending the Christmas holiday out of immigration detention — and a federal judge just made sure of it.

On Monday in Maryland, US District Judge Paula Xinis extended a temporary restraining order that blocks Immigration and Customs Enforcement from re-detaining the Salvadoran native through the holiday. Abrego Garcia was released from ICE custody on Dec. 11, after Xinis ruled the government had held him “without lawful authority.”

The problem, the judge found earlier this month, was basic but huge: Abrego Garcia hadn’t been issued a formal removal order during his immigration proceedings back in 2019. That same year, an immigration judge also barred the government from deporting him to El Salvador, citing his fear of persecution.

After his release, though, an immigration judge moved to “correct” the missing paperwork — adding a removal order to the record and saying it had been “erroneously omitted.” That sudden fix is one reason Xinis is keeping a close grip on the case for now.

In Monday’s hearing, Xinis repeatedly pressed the Trump administration’s legal team on a simple question: If her order disappears, will ICE pick him up again? She made clear she’s not interested in vague assurances or guesswork.

“Show your work, that’s all,” she told government attorneys, demanding clear documentation of what they plan to do and the legal basis for doing it — especially given her finding that he was previously detained without proper authority.

Xinis ordered the government to file a formal submission of facts by Dec. 26, with Abrego Garcia’s legal team to respond by Dec. 30. After that, she’ll decide whether to issue a longer-lasting preliminary injunction or dissolve the case.

Outside court, Abrego Garcia’s attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said the family is still stuck in a kind of emotional whiplash.

“It’s just been one earthquake after another,” he said. “The sword is still hanging — very much hanging.”

Abrego Garcia’s case has been one of the most closely watched immigration fights of Trump’s second term. He had been living in Maryland with his wife and children when he was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite the 2019 order blocking removal to El Salvador — after the administration accused him of being MS-13, which he denies.

He was returned to the US in June to face federal human smuggling charges in Tennessee. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for trial in January.

Meanwhile, his lawyers are also pushing for sanctions against the administration over public comments they say violated a court order limiting extrajudicial statements. After Abrego Garcia’s release, Chief Border Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino called him an “alien smuggler” and “wife beater” on national TV, according to a motion filed Friday.

For now, the takeaway is straightforward: ICE can’t re-detain Abrego Garcia through Christmas — and the judge wants receipts before she lets the government do anything else.