The immigration attorneys representing Kilmar Abrego Garcia in his lawsuits against U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) argued in a Monday filing that the amended final deportation order filed for their client in December 2025 did not reset the clock for him to be detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), despite acknowledging it reset his 30-day appeal window in a filing submitted in January.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys began their arguments in the 17-page filing with this claim, arguing that the December 2025 order by an immigration judge could not be a final deportation order because it only sought to correct the original order issued in 2019, which included withholding of removal language that kept the alleged human smuggler from being deported to El Salvador, but did not specifically order him removed from the United States.
The attorneys argued, “Once amended, the operative removal order dates to October 2019, not December 2025. Abrego Garcia had 30 days to appeal the October 2019 decision to the [Board of Immigration Appeals]. He did not appeal. Under governing law, the removal order became administratively final when the appeal period expired in November 2019.”
However, the attorneys acknowledged that Abrego Garcia waived his right to appeal the December 2025 decision in their January 5 filing before the same court.
“While Abrego Garcia has serious concerns about the validity of the immigration judge’s December 11 order, he waives his right to challenge that order,” in order to support Abrego Garcia’s immigration case, which is no longer awaiting a final outcome, but removal is not foreseeable because there is no appropriate nation for ICE to deport him.
After the U.S. State Department obtained special reassurances for Abrego Garcia from Costa Rica during failed plea deal negotiations to resolve his human smuggling case, he both identified the Central American nation as his preferred country for removal, while also claiming to fear persecution or torture if deported there.
Despite the apparent contradiction, his immigration attorneys have repeatedly argued that Abrego Garcia can only be deported to Costa Rica because of his designation, and reiterated this argument in the Monday filing.
U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, ordered Abrego Garcia released on December 11, when she determined the final order in his 2019 immigration case was not valid because it lacked the proper language ordering him deported.
Abrego Garcia was first deported amid controversy in March 2025, but was returned to the United States in March, when the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed the indictment accusing him of spending nearly a decade in a human smuggling ring.
The indictment was unsealed weeks after The Tennessee Star reported that Abrego Garcia was stopped by the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) in November 2022, and after a THP spokesman confirmed to The Star that the “Biden-era FBI” ordered troopers to release him. A document released by DHS under the Trump administration showed troopers suspected human trafficking.
U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw, another Obama-appointed judge, recently canceled the trial date for Abrego Garcia in favor of an evidentiary hearing to determine whether the case should be dropped for vindictive prosecution. Crenshaw canceled that hearing, originally scheduled for January 28, due to Winter Storm Fern. Abrego Garica has pleaded not guilty.
The Star was recognized for its reporting on Abrego Garcia with the Dao Prize for Best Local Journalism last year.
– – –
Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
