Washington (EFE).- A United States judge issued an order on Friday to temporarily prohibit the re-detention of Kilmar Ábrego, a Salvadoran migrant who was deported to El Salvador irregularly and recently released from an immigration center in Pennsylvania.
Paula Xinis, a federal judge in Maryland, issued an emergency order preventing Ábrego’s arrest for a “brief” period, explained Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of his lawyers, outside the migration center where Ábrego was summoned.
The same magistrate ordered his immediate release from the Pennsylvania center on Thursday, ruling that his detention had occurred “without legal authority.”
Sandoval-Moshenberg explained that, after Ábrego’s release, they presented the judge with a request for “temporary protection” because he had been summoned to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) center in Baltimore, similar to when he was released by a Tennessee judge and detained again.
Before entering the center, Ábrego appeared before the media and said that he was presenting himself as “a free man.” “I want them to remember me that way, with my head held high.”
“No matter what the government says, I still believe this is a country of laws and justice, and we will overcome all the injustices,” he said, thanking his family, God, his legal team, and everyone who supported him.
His lawyer denounced the “campaign of persecution” he was suffering and called for “consequences” for the US President Donald Trump administration.
Although not detained now, he remains subject to the provisional release imposed by a Tennessee judge, pending a trial for human trafficking.
When asked about his future in light of the Trump administration’s threat to deport him to an African country with which he has no connection, his lawyer noted that he has many options.
According to him, Costa Rica has offered Ábrego a refugee status. He can accept it or fight for asylum in the US.
Ábrego, 30, is a Salvadoran citizen living in Maryland who entered the US illegally as a teenager. He has an American wife and children.
In 2019, a migration judge ruled that he could not be deported to El Salvador as he would be in danger from a gang there. Nevertheless, the Trump administration deported him, and a court ordered his return.
His case has become emblematic of the work of migrant advocacy organizations denouncing Trump’s anti-immigrant policies. EFE
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