Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to his native El Salvador in March of last year, will learn next month whether the federal government might re-detain him.
Maryland federal Judge Paula Xinis says she will rule by Feb. 12 whether the removal order granted a year ago was a final one. If she determines it was, the government could take him back into custody.
In the meantime, Abrego Garcia, 30, is spending time with his American wife, Jennifer, and other family members in Maryland. He was released from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility just before Christmas, according to his attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg.
鈥淔or him the homecoming was incredibly emotional,鈥� said Sandoval-Moshenberg. 鈥淭his is a person who spent nearly all of 2025 in a jail or detention center.”
Abrego Garcia immigrated illegally from El Salvador to the United States as a teenager, and had since been living and working in Maryland.
He was first detained in March 2025 and then mistakenly deported to El Salvador, despite an order mandating that he not be sent there for safety reasons.
The government then returned him in June, only to subsequently take him back into custody and charge him with human trafficking in Tennessee. Abrego Garcia denies those charges; a trial for those charges was delayed pending the resolution of his deportation status.
The Donald Trump administration has named a number of places Abrego Garcia could be deported, including several nations in Africa. His preference would be to be deported to Costa Rica, where he would not be in fear of being re-deported to El Salvador.
Costa Rica has already agreed to grant Abrego Garcia legal refugee status.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been the U.S. government that’s keeping him in this country,鈥� said Sandoval-Moshenberg. 鈥淥ur argument isn鈥檛 that he can鈥檛 be deported; our argument is that he must be deported. But he must be deported to Costa Rica because that鈥檚 the country that鈥檚 offered him safety.”
The Trump administration has insisted, without proof, that Abrego Garcia is a violent gang member. He has said he has never been a member of MS-13 or any other criminal gang.
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