A federal district court in Maryland is scheduled to hold a status conference this Monday morning in the complex case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man who was deported to El Salvador last March and subsequently returned to the United States to face criminal charges in Tennessee.
The proceedings are occurring amidst a federal government shutdown, which has prompted government attorneys to request a stay of all case deadlines.
Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate cited the shutdown in a court filing, stating that “Absent an appropriation, Department of Justice attorneys and employees of the federal Defendants are prohibited from working, even on a voluntary basis, except in very limited circumstances, including emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property.”
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Abrego Garcia’s legal team is asking the court to deny the government’s request for a stay and is also seeking his release from detention. His lawyers argue that the government’s pursuit of an indefinite extension on deadlines indicates “no significant likelihood that Petitioner will be removed in the reasonably foreseeable future,” thus removing the justification for his continued detention.
Currently detained at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania, Abrego Garcia was initially brought back to the U.S. from El Salvador to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee.
A judge in that case released him into his brother’s custody in Maryland. However, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials subsequently ordered him to report to their Baltimore field office, where he was immediately taken into immigration custody.
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The government was previously barred from deporting Abrego Garcia to El Salvador but now seeks to deport him to another country, with possibilities including Uganda or Eswatini. Maryland Federal District Court Judge Paula Xinis has temporarily banned the government from removing him from the continental United States.
Separately, a judge in the Tennessee criminal case ruled this past week that the “totality of events” created a “realistic likelihood” of vindictive prosecution by the government, entitling Abrego Garcia to discovery and a hearing before a decision is made on his lawyers’ motion to dismiss. A status conference in the Nashville criminal case is set for Friday, October 10.
In a recent setback for Abrego Garcia’s legal team, an immigration judge last week denied a request to reopen his original immigration case. His attorneys had argued that the deportation and return to the U.S. should have reset the timeframe for an asylum claim, but the judge did not agree, effectively closing that potential avenue to prevent his deportation.
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