U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis on Tuesday issued an injunction blocking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the alleged human smuggler and illegal alien from El Salvador. The Obama-appointed jurist ruled Abrego Garcia cannot be detained because his deportation is not imminent, and his 90-day window to appeal his final deportation order expired in 2019.
Siding with Abrego Garcia’s attorneys, Xinis effectively blocked the Trump administration from detaining Abrego Garcia unless it is willing to deport him to Costa Rica, which he declared his preferred destination after the U.S. Secretary of State obtained diplomatic assurances during failed plea deal negotiations last year.
While his immigration lawyers have repeatedly claimed he would consent to deportation to Costa Rica, Abrego Garcia nonetheless filed notice last year that he fears persecution or torture if deported to the tropical nation.
In her order, Xinis also determined that the December 2025 decision by a top immigration judge to revise the final ruling from Abrego Garcia’s 2019 deportation case, which she previously ruled was not a final deportation order because it did not specifically state that Abrego Garcia must be removed to El Salvador, did not reset his 90-day appeal window.
Her decision came despite an immigration court notifying Abrego Garcia and his attorneys that the appeal clock was reset by the December 2025 order.
Because Xinis formalized her previous temporary order blocking the Trump administration from detaining Abrego Garcia with an injunction, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may now appeal her decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
DHS could also seek an expedited path to the U.S. Supreme Court, which already reviewed and revised a decision made by Xinis in the first lawsuit against the Trump administration by Abrego Garcia last year.
A Bloomberg Law analysis published last year found that every decision by the Fourth Circuit that the U.S. Supreme Court heard during that term was reversed, suggesting that many of the appellate court’s decisions do not survive final review.
Originally deported by the Trump administration in March 2025, Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States last June, after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed its indictment alleging he spent nearly a decade embroiled in a human smuggling ring.
The indictment came weeks after The Tennessee Star reported that Abrego Garcia was previously stopped by Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) in November 2022, when a DHS document shows troopers suspected human trafficking, but a THP spokesman told The Star that troopers were ordered to release Abrego Garcia by the “Biden-era FBI.”
Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty to the charges. U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw, another Obama-appointed judge, is allowing Abrego Garcia to challenge the charges over vindictive prosecution claims.
In 2025, The Star was recognized for its reporting on Abrego Garcia with the Dao Prize for Best Local Journalism.
– – –
Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Obama is still screwing this country. Delta is ready to take him back to Africa.