Kilmar Abrego Garcia freed from federal immigration detention. [View all]

Kilmar Abrego Garcia freed from federal immigration detention on judge’s order and returns home

PHILIPSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia was freed from immigration detention on a judge’s order Thursday while he fights to stay in the U.S., handing a major victory to the immigrant whose wrongful deportation to a notorious prison in El Salvador made him a flashpoint of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement to let Abrego Garcia go immediately, writing that federal authorities had detained him again after his return to the United States without any legal basis.

Abrego Garcia returned to his home in Maryland wearing a white shirt and orange hat hours after his release at 5 p.m., the deadline the judge gave the government for an update on Abrego Garcia’s release. He’s lived for years in Maryland, where he has an American wife and child, since 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.

https://apnews.com/article/abrego-garcia-el-salvador-deportation-31160936c51932f74b717eb1143edd55