Abrego Garcia lawyers ask US judge to order return to Maryland amid ongoing criminal case

Lawyers for Salvadorian migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia filed an emergency motion Thursday asking a federal judge to order their client’s return to Maryland, and to block ICE officials from deporting him while his criminal case in Tennessee continues to play out.

In an emergency filing, lawyers for Abrego Garcia urged U.S. District Judge Puala Xinis to order their client’s return to the District of Maryland “immediately upon his release from confinement” in the Middle District of Tennessee, and to order the government to refrain from moving him outside the U.S., or the District of Maryland, ahead of his looming criminal trial in Tennessee.

It’s the latest move in a months-long legal fight over the status of the wrongfully deported Salvadorian migrant. 

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In the filing, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers clarified they are not seeking to litigate his Tennessee criminal case — a separate matter from the civil case Xinis handled earlier this year, when she ordered Abrego Garcia’s return from El Salvador after he was deported in March in what Trump officials called an administrative error.

Abrego Garcia’s March deportation kicked off a months-long court fight to secure his release and return to U.S. soil, despite both a federal court order and a Supreme Court ruling requiring the administration to “facilitate” his return. The government eventually complied after months of delay and threats from a federal judge in Maryland to pursue potential contempt proceedings. 

Upon return, he was immediately taken into custody for alleged federal crimes stemming from a 2022 traffic stop — prompting a flurry of questions as to when the investigation and impaneling of a grand jury, which indicted him on May 21, 2025, would have taken place.

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Lawyers for Abrego Garcia told Xinis Thursday that their motion “simply seeks to ensure that when Abrego Garcia is released from criminal custody, he returns to, and remains in, this District (other than to travel to Tennessee as needed), until further order from this Court.”

Their remarks come just days after a federal magistrate judge in Tennessee ordered Abrego Garcia’s release pending trial in his criminal case. 

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes said in her Sunday order that the government failed to prove its case during an arraignment hearing earlier this month that Abrego Garcia was a “serious risk” of fleeing or obstructing justice if he were to be released pending trial for the criminal charges.

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The Trump administration has repeatedly vowed that Abrego Garcia would be taken into ICE detention, should he be released from federal custody — something the new emergency order sought to prevent. 

“If this Court does not act swiftly, then the Government is likely to whisk Abrego Garcia away to some place far from Maryland,” lawyers told Xinis on Thursday. 

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.