Judge orders Abrego Garcia free from ICE custody, citing lack of gov’t action

A federal judge blocked it Tuesday Trump administration From the rearrest of Salvadoran immigrant Kelmar Abrego Garcia to federal immigration custody — an update that comes just days before he is scheduled to appear in Nashville for a key court date in a separate criminal case.

U.S. District Judge Paula Shenis agreed to convert her previous emergency order preventing ICE from immediately redetaining Abrego Garcia into a long-term form of injunctive relief sought by his lawyers.

She said on Tuesday that the Trump administration had failed to provide the court with any “good reason to believe” that they planned to deport him to a third country in the “reasonably foreseeable future.” Instead, she added, they “made one empty threat after another to transfer him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success.”

The order clears the way for Abrego Garcia to participate in a key hearing in Nashville next week on whether a separate federal judge should dismiss his criminal case on the grounds of “retaliatory” and selective prosecution.

ABREGO GARCIA remains in the United States for the time being as a judge takes the case under advisement

Separate photo of President Donald Trump, left, and a protester, right, holding a sign urging the return of Kelmar Abrego Garcia. (Getty Images)

Shenis also said the government “did nothing” to show the court that Abrego Garcia’s continued detention in ICE custody was “consistent with due process.”

“The defendants have done nothing to show that Abrego Garcia’s continued detention in ICE custody is consistent with due process,” Shenis said Tuesday.

She reviewed a list of the Trump administration’s efforts to transfer Abrego Garcia to a third country in an African country in the months between August, when Abrego was redetained by ICE, and December, when Shenis finally ordered his release.

The Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Shenis said Tuesday that the administration “refused to secure the immediate deportation of Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica,” a location he identified as his third preferred country for deportation, in favor of what she said were “bogus deportation” attempts by the government to send Abrego to “three (possibly four) African countries.”

“Indeed, since Abrego Garcia obtained his release from criminal custody in August 2025, the defendants have made one empty threat after another to deport him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success,” Shenis said.

ABREGO GARCIA’S LAWYERS ASK US JUDGE TO ORDER RETURN TO MARYLAND Amid ONGOING CRIMINAL CASE

Kelmar Abrego Garcia, right, and his brother Cesar Abrego Garcia, center, arrive at the ICE field office in Baltimore, Monday, August 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

The Trump administration previously tried and failed to transfer Abrego Garcia to African countries such as Liberia, Eswatini, Uganda and briefly Ghana.

Shenis indicated in late November that the government could not take any of these steps Without final notice of the removal order, This was repeated on Tuesday in the order memorandum, which was not obtained by the government.

“Therefore, he must remain subject to the stringent conditions of release already imposed by ICE and in the criminal matter in Tennessee,” Shenis said.

US judge vows to rule ‘soon’ on Abrego Garcia’s fate after marathon hearing

Abrego Garcia’s situation has been at the center of a legal and political vortex since March, when he… He was deported to his native El Salvador, In violation of a 2019 court order and what Trump officials acknowledged was an “administrative error.” Shenis then ordered Abrego Garcia to be returned “immediately” to the United States

He was eventually returned to the United States in June, where he was taken into federal custody in Nashville and held on human smuggling charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop.

The Ministry of Justice later informed Shenis about this Open a criminal investigation It presented him to a grand jury at the same time that Abrego Garcia was being held in a Salvadoran prison, and at the same time that government lawyers were telling the court that the United States was powerless to order his return.

A woman holds a photo of Salvadoran immigrant Kelmar Abrego Garcia outside US District Court in Nashville. A judge ordered Trump officials to testify in court in January to consider Abrego’s motion to dismiss on the grounds of “retaliatory” prosecution. (Getty Images)

The hearing in Nashville next week will center on a motion to dismiss Abrego Garcia’s criminal case on charges of “retaliatory” and selective stalking.

The judge overseeing the case, US District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, ruled in October that Abrego Garcia had demonstrated a “reasonable probability” that the criminal case against him was the result of retaliatory prosecution by the Department of Justice.

Crenshaw had ordered the Trump administration to submit internal court documents and government witnesses to testify about its decision to bring the case.

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Senior Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department officials previously suggested they would appeal Shenis’ orders. Trump officials have sharply criticized Sheenis and other federal judges presiding over the deportation cages who put them in their place. He was repeatedly accused of trespassing Their authority as district judge.

“This order lacks any valid legal basis, and we will continue to fight this order vigorously in the courts,” Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said in response to the court’s previous emergency order.