Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who fled El Salvador as a teenager around 2011, is engaged in a multi-faceted legal battle following his mistaken deportation in March 2025. He was initially arrested in Maryland in March 2019 and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
A Maryland immigration judge ruled in October 2019 that Abrego Garcia could not be deported to El Salvador due to threats against his family, granting him a work permit and federal supervision. Despite this, he was deported to El Salvador in March 2025 and held in a prison there.
Following a U.S. Supreme Court order in April 2025 for his return, Abrego Garcia was brought back to the U.S.
in June 2025 and subsequently faced human smuggling charges in Tennessee, stemming from a 2022 traffic stop. ICE then planned a second deportation to African countries, but this was blocked by a federal judge in Maryland.
Abrego Garcia is now seeking to reopen his immigration case to pursue asylum in the United States, while simultaneously challenging the government's deportation efforts in a civil case in Maryland and facing the criminal charges in Tennessee.
