U.S. Judge Paula Kisinis said the government made “a series of empty threats” to deport Kilmer Abrego Garcia to Africa.
President Trump defends returning Abrego Garcia after he was wrongly deported
On Friday, June 6, US President Donald Trump defended the return of wrongly deported Kilmer Armando Abrego Garcia, saying on board Air Force One: “Bring him back. Show everyone what a horrible human being this man is.”
A federal judge ruled on February 17 that the Trump administration cannot remand Salvadoran immigrant Kilmer Abrego Garcia because authorities are threatening to deport him to Africa.
Maryland Judge Paula Kisinis said in her order that the government “made a series of empty threats to deport him to African countries with no real chance of success.”
Sinis officials ruled that Abrego Garcia, who was deported to El Salvador last year against a judicial order and became a lightning rod for criticizing President Trump’s deportation policies, cannot be returned to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
“From this, the court readily concludes that there is no ‘sufficient reason to believe’ that removal is likely in the reasonably foreseeable future,” Kunis wrote.
In 2025, Abrego Garcia, a father living in Maryland, is a central figure in President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement effort, transporting immigrants to a massive prison in El Salvador. In March, the administration mistakenly deported him to a terrorist confinement center in El Salvador, even though a 2019 order prohibited his return to his home country.
Following a court order, the Trump administration returned him to the United States, but only attempted to deport him to several African countries. On December 11, President Sinis ordered Abrego García to be released from immigration detention.
Sinis, who was appointed to the jury by former President Barack Obama, said in his Feb. 17 order that a 90-day detention period to remove Abrego-Garcia has expired and guarantee his continued freedom. Meanwhile, officials announced he would be deported to one of several countries, including Liberia, Uganda, Eswatini and Ghana. But Sinis said authorities have not secured travel documents to deport him to a third country.
It was not immediately clear whether federal authorities planned to appeal the ruling.
“If this issue was indeed about law and due process, Mr. Kilmer Abrego Garcia would have already been deported and would never set foot in this country again,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement, adding, “Judge Kunis will not be satisfied until he is allowed to live permanently in the United States.”
Abrego García had previously indicated he would be willing to be extradited to Costa Rica, where officials said they would accept him as a refugee, but Sinis said administration officials ignored this.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said the government tried “one tactic after another to get him remanded” and Sinis “patiently and methodically” defeated them all.
“With today’s decision, she acknowledges that if the government was serious about deporting Ms. Abrego-Garcia from the United States, she would have sent him to Costa Rica long before today,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said in an email, adding that she hopes the government will not appeal the order and instead agree to work out the details of its plan for deportation to Costa Rica.
Abrego-Garcia faces an ongoing criminal case related to a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. After he returned from El Salvador in 2025, federal prosecutors charged him with human smuggling, but he maintained his innocence.
This story has been updated to add new information.
Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Contact us via email (emcuevas1@usatoday.com) or Signal (emcuevas.01).
