The Trump administration suffered a decisive blow Wednesday after a federal judge ruled that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who has been the target of the administration for deportation for months, could not be deported until at least early October.
Garcia, who despite having protected legal status was wrongly deported to El Salvador in March due to an “administrative error,” has become a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s mass deportation policy, largely centered around debates over migrants being denied due process in their arrests.
Initially arrested and deported without charge, the Justice Department has since charged Garcia with human trafficking, with President Donald Trump and high-ranking government officials frequently making disparaging remarks about his character. While the Trump administration was forced to return Garcia from El Salvador as a result of a judge’s order, they now hope to send him to Uganda after he had refused a plea deal that would have seen him sent to Costa Rica.
However, a ruling Wednesday from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis put a stop to those plans, at least for now. The judge set a hearing in the DOJ’s case against Garcia for Oct. 6, meaning, at least until the hearing, Garcia will be spared from deportation, WVTM13 reported.
Xinis had previously blocked the Trump administration’s plan to deport Garcia to Uganda in part because there was no assurance that he wouldn’t simply be deported from Uganda to El Salvador, the prisons of which are notoriously dangerous.