A federal judge has blocked efforts by the Trump administration to rearrest Kilmar Ábrego García, the Maryland father who was wrongfully sent to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT mega-prison last March. Since his return to the United States in June, Ábrego García has been fighting repeated deportation threats, as DHS has intended to send him to several African countries he has no ties to. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said in her ruling Tuesday the Trump administration “made one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success. … There is no 'good reason to believe' removal is likely in the reasonably foreseeable future.”

Ábrego García’s legal team has said he had agreed to the possibility of being removed to Costa Rica, but Judge Xinis blasted the Trump administration for “purposely — and for no reason — ignored the one country that has consistently offered to accept Abrego Garcia as a refugee, and to which he agrees to go.”

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