“This is naked judicial activism by an Obama appointed judge.”

Credit: Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images.

By  Cameron Arcand – Dec 11, 2025   DailyWire.com

A federal judge on Thursday ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia to be “immediately” released from an immigration detention facility as the Department of Homeland Security vows to challenge the decision.

“This is naked judicial activism by an Obama appointed judge. This order lacks any valid legal basis and we will continue to fight this tooth and nail in the courts,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said that “since Abrego Garcia’s return from wrongful detention in El Salvador, he has been re-detained, again without lawful authority” and granted his petition to be freed from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.

“Abrego Garcia’s case demands judicial intervention,” Xinis said.

Xinis instructed the federal government to inform Abrego Garcia of her order and to notify the court by 5 pm ET on Thursday of the time and location of his release.

“Because Abrego Garcia has been held in ICE detention to effectuate third-county removal absent a lawful removal order, his requested relief is proper,” Xinis added.

In March, Abrego Garcia, 30, was deported to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison after President Donald Trump and other administration officials claimed he was a member of the MS-13 crime gang. Over the summer, the Salvadoran native was returned to the United States to face human smuggling charges and released into his brother’s custody. He has pleaded not guilty and denies being a gang member. He was later detained again by federal authorities and is now being held in a Pennsylvania detention facility.

In November, the Trump administration asked Judge Xinis to dissolve a ban on deporting Abrego Garcia to Liberia, a West African nation. The administration has been seeking to deport him to at least five other countries.

He reportedly lived in Maryland for more than a decade after entering the United States illegally.

Abrego Garcia’s human smuggling trial in Tennessee is set to start in January, but he’s trying to get the charges dropped, claiming he is being unfairly prosecuted. According to the indictment, Abrego Garcia and accomplices conspired to unlawfully transport aliens from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Ecuador, and other nations into the United States.

Obama Judge Demands Kilmar Abrego Garcia Be Immediately Released

Neil Munro – 11 Dec 2025 – Breitbart – 2:36

A judge is demanding that the Department of Homeland Security release famed illegal migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia from detention, pending his deportation.

“Respondents SHALL release Abrego Garcia from ICE custody immediately,” Judge Paula Xinis declared on December 11. The judge, who was nominated by President Barack Obama, continued:

Respondents SHALL notify Abrego Garcia’s counsel of the exact time and location of his release no fewer than four hours prior to releasing him, and notify the Court of the status of Abrego Garcia’s release by email to chambers no later than 5:00 p.m. today, Thursday, December 11, 2025.

“This is naked judicial activism by an Obama-appointed judge,” said Tricia McLaughlin, the top DHS spokeswoman. “This order lacks any valid legal basis and we will continue to fight this tooth and nail in the courts,” McLaughlin added.

Pro-illegal-immigration groups are providing elite lawyers to Abrego Garcia as they try to tangle President Donald Trump in many overlapping lawsuits as he works to protect ordinary Americans from the inflow of wage-cutting, chaos-maximizing migrants. This so-called “lawfare” is expensive but it does hobble the enforcement of the popular laws that protect ordinary Americans from open borders.

Many Democrats have supported the illegal migrant, despite credible accusations that he beat his wife several times, served as a street hustler for the dangerous MS-13 gang, and worked as an illegal labor trafficker over several years.

But the fight is a clear political loser for Democrats. A June poll by Harvard/Harris shows that 62 percent of registered voters say he is “likely a[n] MS-13 gang member.”

In October, another judge confirmed the “Final Deportation Order” for the Salvadoran illegal immigrant.

In August, White House deportation chief Tom Homan declared of Abrego Garcia:

He is a gang member, human trafficker, wife beater, child predator, and criminal illegal alien. He’s a significant public safety threat… [and a] designated terrorist, and he’s been ordered removed by two different federal judges… He’s been indicted for human trafficking and alien smuggling. He’s a bad man. And I’m telling you, listen, I’m giving you my word: He will be deported from this country.

“I got my teeth in this thing, I’m not letting it go,” Homan added.

Judge Upholds Final Deportation Order for Alleged MS-13 Gangbanger Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Warner Todd Huston – 2 Oct 2025 – Breitbart

A federal immigration judge denied a motion by lawyers for El Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia to reopen his immigration case and confirmed the illegal immigrant’s  final deportation order.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers filed an emergency motion in August to reopen the case to cancel the deportation order claiming that since he was deported to El Salvador, but quickly brought back, he is eligible to claim asylum within one year of his last entry to the United States, ABC News reported.

But Regional Deputy Chief Immigration Judge Philip Taylor ruled Wednesday that Abrego Garcia already filed his original asylum claim nearly six years after his first immigration hearing, a period long outside the legal 90-day deadline from his arrival in the country in 2011.

Judge Taylor went on to say that there is no evidence that Abrego Garcia’s life is under threat should he deported back to El Salvador and pointed out there is no evidence that El Salvadoran officials have labeled Garcia a member of the terror gang MS-13, despite the label being applied to him by American officials.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys also objected to the government’s warning that he could be deported to Uganda, Eswatini, or other nations, but Judge Taylor ruled that there is “insufficient evidence” that such a move has been predetermined, even though federal officials sent his lawyers a letter saying he may be deported to an African nation.

“The word ‘may’ is permissive and indicates to the Court that in sending this notification to Respondent’s counsel, the Department sought to convey that it reserved the right to remove him to Uganda,” the judge wrote in his ruling, “not necessarily that it intended to do so, that it had decided to do so, or that it would do so imminently,” .

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted a message to X announcing that Abrego Garcia’s final deportation order is now confirmed.

“With today’s ruling, Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s final order of removal stands,” the post reads.

“This MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, domestic abuser, and child predator will never be loose on American streets. …This Salvadoran man is not going to be able to remain in our country. He will never be allowed to prey on innocent Americans again,” DHS’s post continued.

The post also blasted the many Democrats in Congress who used Garcia to make political hay.

“Never forget the Democrats flew to a foreign land on the US taxpayer’s dime to break bread with this terrorist gang member and visit him in prison. While they continue to fight for criminal illegal aliens, we will continue to put the safety of the American people FIRST,” the post concluded. https://www.breitbart.com/t/assets/html/tweet-5.html#1973535704337486011

Abrego Garcia shot to minor fame when the media rushed to his defense, infamously calling him a “Maryland man,” after he was arrested by ICE in March. He has been living in the U.S. illegally since 2011 and was designated an MS-13 gang member by federal officials based on his arrest record. Despite living in the United States for more than a decade, he still cannot speak English. He was deported to El Salvador but in April, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the administration to facilitate his return to the United States.

Several elected Democrats flew to El Salvador for photo ops with Abrego Garcia. Maryland Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen, for one, was seen in video having a snack with Abrego Garcia when he flew to El Salvador to advocate for the illegal immigrant.

He was released back into the United States, but faced a final deportation order, which his lawyers have been fighting.

Throughout the ordeal, the Trump administration said its goal was to deport Abrego Garcia. In August, Trump border czar Tom Homan vowed that Abrego Garcia “will be deported.”

Homan insisted that Abrego Garcia is a “gang member, human trafficker, wife beater, child predator and criminal illegal alien. He’s a significant public safety threat … He’s a gang member, designated terrorist, and he’s been ordered removed by two different federal judges,” Homan said. “He’s been indicted for human trafficking and alien smuggling. He’s a bad man. And I’m telling you, listen, I’m giving you my word. He will be deported from this country. I got my teeth in this thing. I’m not letting it go.”

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