🔴 Website 👉 https://u-s-news.com/
Telegram 👉 https://t.me/usnewscom_channel
OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
7:10 PM – Thursday, December 11, 2025
30-year-old Salvadoran illegal alien Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was released from an immigration detention center in Pennsylvania, hours after a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration had been “holding him illegally” for nearly four months.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of the District of Maryland issued a 31-page order on Wednesday granting Abrego Garcia’s habeas corpus petition and directing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to “immediately release” him.
In her ruling, Judge Xinis wrote that the government had detained Abrego Garcia “without lawful authority,” that no valid final order of removal existed, and that indefinite civil detention could not be used as punishment or without a legitimate deportation purpose.
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, legal director at the Legal Aid Justice Center and one of Abrego Garcia’s attorneys, confirmed the release to reporters Wednesday evening.
The illegal alien’s case gained national attention earlier this year when ICE deported him back to his home country of El Salvador in March, prompting left-wing activists and Democrats to point toward a 2019 immigration judge’s order barring his removal “due to credible fear of gang violence.”
Advertisement
He spent months in El Salvador’s CECOT prison before being flown back to the United States in August to face unrelated federal criminal human-smuggling charges — stemming from a 2019 arrest in Tennessee.
Although he was later released on bond in that criminal case and placed in the custody of his U.S.-citizen brother, ICE rearrested him during a routine check-in in Baltimore and transferred him to a detention center in Pennsylvania.
The DHS swiftly criticized Wednesday’s ruling, with a spokesperson labeling it “judicial activism that undermines the executive branch’s authority” to enforce immigration laws. The agency confirmed that it intends to appeal.
Abrego Garcia remains under supervised release and is scheduled to report to ICE’s Baltimore field office on Friday. He still faces pending criminal federal smuggling charges in Nashville, Tennessee, though no trial date has been set.
Stay informed! Receive breaking news alerts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
What do YOU think? Click here to jump to the comments!
Sponsored Content Below