US judge orders release of Kilmar Abrego, man mistakenly deported to Bukele megaprison

A judge ordered this Thursday to be released from the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran deported in March to the CECOT maximum security prison in El Salvador “by mistake”.

Maryland District Judge Paula Xinis ordered Abrego’s “immediate” release and said his detention had taken place “without legal authority.”

The judge’s order means that Abrego will be allowed, at least temporarily, to return home to Maryland despite repeated declarations by Trump administration officials that he would never again be free in the United States.

Last August, the same judge stopped his deportation to Uganda after having been arrested by ICE agents after going to a Baltimore facility. Abrego had been released three days earlier, after more than five months in detention.

About Abrego a deportation order to Uganda was in effect after rejecting an offer to sendI love Costa Rica in exchange for pleading guilty to human trafficking charges.

The judge is also the one who, in April, ordered the US government to will facilitate Abrego’s return from El Salvador, after being expelled there by mistake.

Although the Trump administration admitted that Ábrego’s expulsion was an “administrative error”, the authorities have been repeatedly accused of being affiliated with the MS-13 gang, a charge he and his family strongly deny.

American officials have proposed deport him to Costa Rica if he pleads guilty to human trafficking chargesaccording to his lawyers.

If he fails to do so, Abrego will be deported to Ugandacountry “much more dangerous”, denounces its defense.