ICE barred from re-detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia through Christmas holiday

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: ABC News

POLITICS
ICE barred from re-detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia through Christmas holiday

By Arthur Jones II and Armando Garcia ABCNews
Monday, December 22, 2025 3:07PM
ABC News Live

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is barred from re-detaining Salvadoran native Kilmar Abrego Garca through the Christmas holiday, the federal judge in his immigration case said Monday.

In a hearing in Maryland, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ruled that Abrego Garca will remain free of federal custody through the holiday.

Abrego Garcia's lawyers had sought a temporary restraining order to keep ICE from re-detaining Abrego Garcia while the government attempts to deport him to Liberia or another country.

{snip}

Read more: https://abc13.com/post/ice-barred-detaining-kilmar-abrego-garcia-christmas-holiday/18307179/

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https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/abrego-garcia-can-remain-free-while-judge-considers-arguments-for-returning-him-to-immigration-custody

Abrego Garcia can remain free while judge considers arguments for returning him to immigration custody

Nation Dec 22, 2025 2:54 PM EST

GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — A federal judge on Monday questioned whether government officials could be trusted to follow orders barring them from taking Kilmar Abrego Garcia into immigration custody or deporting him. ... U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis noted that Abrego Garcia was already deported without legal authority once and said she was “growing beyond impatient” with government misrepresentations in her court. “Why should I give the respondents the benefit of the doubt?” she asked, referring to the government attorneys.

Abrego Garcia’s mistaken deportation and imprisonment in El Salvador in March has galvanized both sides of the immigration debate. The Trump administration initially fought efforts to bring him back to the U.S. but eventually complied after the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in. He returned to the U.S. in June, only to face an arrest warrant on human smuggling charges in Tennessee.

Xinis ordered Abrego Garcia released from immigration custody on Dec. 11 after determining that the government had no viable plan for deporting him. She followed that with a temporary restraining order the next day barring Immigration and Customs Enforcement from immediately taking him back into custody. The Monday hearing was to determine if the temporary restraining order should be dissolved.

{snip}

[gohuskies]

1. Bondi's DOJ is in contempt and needs to be sanctioned

This is beyond cruelty being the point. Scapegoating Kilmar Albrego Garcia is so totally ugly and illegal just to push a corrupt racist deportation agenda. This is not what America is under any circumstances. Bondi and that orange felon need to be held accountable for a mind-numbing array of criminal actions.

[Polybius]

3. At this point, it's so mean that I don't even know why he wants to stay

Canada would be a better place.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Abrego Garcia's 'Literal Double Bind'

Reposted by Don’t Have To Apologize For Being Popehat Anymore
https://bsky.app/profile/kenwhite.bsky.social

TPM
‪@talkingpointsmemo.com‬

Kilmar Abrego Garcia remains in a “literal double bind,” with a bracelet on one ankle from his criminal case in Tennessee and an ICE bracelet on the other ankle from his immigration case in Maryland. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland is in a bind, too:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/abrego-garcias-literal-double-bind

Abrego Garcia’s ‘Literal Double Bind’
GREENBELT, MD — For the first time since he was unlawfully deported...
talkingpointsmemo.com
3:51 PM · Dec 22, 2025

Kilmar Abrego Garcia remains in a “literal double bind,” with a bracelet on one ankle from his criminal case in Tennessee and an ICE bracelet on the other ankle from his immigration case in Maryland. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland is in a bind, too:
talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/abreg...

— TPM (@talkingpointsmemo.com) 2025-12-22T20:51:04.818Z

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. NEW: A sealed Dec. 3 order in Kilmar Abrego Garcia's criminal case in Tennessee is to be unsealed on Dec. 30.

Chris Geidner
‪@chrisgeidner.bsky.social‬

NEW: A sealed Dec. 3 order in Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s criminal case in Tennessee is to be unsealed on Dec. 30, per an order from Judge Crenshaw this morning.
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.tnmd.104622/gov.uscourts.tnmd.104622.280.0.pdf

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT MIDDLE DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE
NASHVILLE DIVISION
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Plaintiff,
v.
NO. 3:25-cr-00115
KILMAR ARMANDO ABREGO GARCIA
Defendant.
ORDER
By Order entered December 10, 2025, (Doc. No. 260), the parties have offered their
respective positions on whether the Memorandum Opinion and Order entered on December 3, 2025 ("December 3 Decision&quot , (Doc. No. 241), should remain under seal. (Doc. Nos. 264, 265).
Relying upon the attorney-client privilege and work-product and deliberative-process protections,
the government seeks redactions to the December 3 Decision before it is unsealed. In response, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia ("Abrego&quot relies on the "long-established legal tradition" of the
"presumptive right of the public to inspect and copy judicial documents and files" in asserting that
the December 3 Decision should be disclosed publicly in full. In re Knoxville News-Sentinel Co.,
723 F.2d 470, 474 (6th Cir. 1983); (see Doc. No. 264 at 1).
This Court has twice considered and rejected the government's reliance upon privileges
and protections to preclude or limit discovery on Abrego's motion to dismiss. (See Doc. Nos. 185,
241). First, when the Court granted Abrego's motion to compel, it explained why the various
executive privileges must yield to Abrego's due process right to a non-vindictive prosecution. (See
Doc. No. 185 at 3-7). Second, after the Court accepted the government's invitation for an in
camera review of over 3,000 documents produced by the government, the Court again rejected
ALT

argument that various privileges preclude or limit the disclosure of a sub-set of those documents.
(See Doc. No. 241 at 8). In doing so, the Court specifically cited and relied upon the Sixth Circuit
decisions in United States v Adams, 870 F.2d 1140 (6th Cir. 1989) and United States v. Zakhari,
85 F. 4th 367 (6th Cir. 2023). In both cases, the Sixth Circuit approved of narrow discovery prior
to the evidentiary hearing on vindictive prosecution. Adams, 870 F.2d at 1146; Zakhari, 85 F. 4th
at 381. Despite this, the government continues to rely on those same privileges in its attempt to limit public disclosure of the December 3 Decision. It does so without any acknowledgment of, or counter-argument to, the Court's privilege analysis or the Sixth Circuit cases cited by the Court.
Accordingly, the Memorandum Opinion and Order (Doc. No. 241) will remain under seal
until noon on December 30, 2025, at which time the Clerk shall make it available for public
inspection.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
Van D. reason p
VAVERLY D-CRENSHAW. JI UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
ALT
10:50 AM · Dec 23, 2025

NEW: A sealed Dec. 3 order in Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s criminal case in Tennessee is to be unsealed on Dec. 30, per an order from Judge Crenshaw this morning. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner.bsky.social) 2025-12-23T15:50:20.826Z