Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was released from prison on Friday after being detained in Tennessee following his return to the U.S. from El Salvador, is now being held at a facility in Virginia, as per a judge’s ruling blocking the Trump administration from deporting him to Uganda.
Abrego Garcia was released from criminal custody and briefly reunited with his wife and children before being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for a second time on Monday during a procedural immigration check-in that was part of his release agreement.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia speaks during a rally and prayer vigil for him before he enters a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office on Aug. 25, 2025 in Baltimore.
Andrew Harnik / Getty Images
The father of three was flown back to the U.S. in June after months of legal back-and-forth, including a Supreme Court ruling ordering the Trump administration to facilitate his return.
Upon his arrival, Abrego Garcia was arrested on human smuggling charges in Tennessee. He pleaded not guilty and maintains that the federal government’s accusations against him are false.
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His lawyers, who had asked Tennessee-based U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw to dismiss the charges, argued that prosecutors improperly targeted him for filing a lawsuit challenging his wrongful deportation.
“There was no need to take him into ICE detention.… The only reason they took him into detention was to punish him” for using his constitutional right to speak up and fight proceedings,” Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Abrego Garcia’s lawyers, told NBC News Monday morning.
Abrego Garcia filed a lawsuit in Maryland asking that he not be deported to Uganda until he is granted a fair trial for the human smuggling charges.
At a hearing on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis barred the government from deporting Abrego Garcia until she could hold an evidentiary hearing on the case.
She also questioned whether Abrego Garcia would be safe if he were deported to Uganda, and raised concerns about his lack of connections to or in the country and over the federal government’s intentions to deport him there, the BBC reported.
“It is in my view plain that you can’t do that,” Xinis said. “You can’t condition the relinquishment of constitutional rights in that regard.
“You’d never get a knowing and voluntary guilty plea out of anyone if you do that.”
Two existing court orders, in addition to Xinis’, already block the government from deporting Abrego Garcia from the U.S. until Wednesday afternoon.
Xinis added that the Trump administration was “absolutely forbidden” from removing Abrego Garcia while those court orders stand.
Sandoval-Moshenberg requested that his client be held within 200 miles (322 kilometres) of the court to ensure he had timely access to the court and his legal proceedings.
Xinis asked both sides to provide briefs this week ahead of a possible hearing. She is the judge who oversaw Abrego Garcia’s lawsuit over his wrongful deportation to El Salvador.
Before being detained on Monday, Abgrego Garcia addressed a crowd of supporters who had gathered outside a Maryland courthouse.
“Brothers and sisters, my name is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and I always want you to remember that today, I can say with pride that I am free and have been reunited with my family,” he said.
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