Court blocks migrant re-detention amid claims of prosecutorial vindictiveness

A federal judge has reportedly blocked the current administration from re-arresting a Salvadoran migrant into immigration custody, according to court documents, amid allegations of prosecutorial vindictiveness in a separate criminal case.

District Judge Paula Xinis allegedly agreed to extend her previous emergency order protecting Kilmar Abrego Garcia from immediate re-detention, converting it into longer-term injunctive relief. The decision comes as the migrant is scheduled to appear in a southern city for a key court hearing regarding his criminal case.

According to the ruling, Xinis stated that the administration failed to provide “good reason to believe” they plan to remove him to a third country in the “reasonably foreseeable future.” The judge reportedly criticized what she characterized as “empty threats” to remove him to various African nations “with no real chance of success.”

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

Observers note that Xinis also questioned whether the government had demonstrated that the migrant’s continued detention would be “consistent with due process.” The judge reportedly detailed the administration’s unsuccessful efforts to remove Abrego Garcia to four African nations identified as potential “third countries” of removal between August and December.

According to court documents, the administration “refused to procure” immediate removal to Costa Rica, the migrant’s preferred destination, instead pursuing what the judge termed “phantom removals” to African countries. The nation’s attempts to remove him to Liberia, Eswatini, Uganda, and briefly Ghana have all reportedly failed.

The case has become the center of a legal and political controversy since March, when Abrego Garcia was deported to his home country in what officials acknowledge was an “administrative error,” violating a 2019 court order. The migrant was eventually returned to the country in June and taken into federal custody on human smuggling charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop.

According to court filings, the Justice Department opened its criminal investigation and presented it to a grand jury while Abrego Garcia was detained in a foreign prison, at the same time government lawyers were reportedly telling the court that the nation was powerless to order his return.

The criminal case judge, District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, had previously ruled that Abrego Garcia established a “reasonable likelihood” that the charges against him resulted from vindictive prosecution. Crenshaw ordered the administration to produce internal documents and government witnesses to testify about the decision to bring the case.

Senior officials from the homeland security and justice departments have reportedly suggested they would appeal the judge’s orders. Administration officials have been critical of federal judges overseeing deportation cases, repeatedly accusing them of overstepping their authority.

“This order lacks any valid legal basis, and we will continue to fight this tooth and nail in the courts,” a homeland security official said in response to the court’s earlier emergency order, according to sources.