Judge Halts Abrego Garcia's Deportation, for Now

A federal judge has at least temporarily halted the government's latest attempt to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Monday's order from US District Judge Paula Xinis came hours after Homeland Security officials detained Abrego Garcia during a required check-in at the Immigration Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore and said they'd begun processing him for removal, reports the Washington Post. He will remain in the US until the judge has time to hold a hearing and assess the case.

"This administration has hit us hard, but I want to tell you guys something: God is with us, and God will never leave us," Abrego Garcia told a crowd of supporters before turning himself in, per the AP. "God will bring justice to all the injustice we are suffering," he added, speaking through a translator.

Abrego Garcia's attorneys claim that the administration is pressuring him to plead guilty to what they say are bogus migrant smuggling charges. If he takes the plea, he goes to Spanish-speaking Costa Rica, they say. If not, he might get sent to Uganda in Africa. Prosecutors reject the claim as "misleading." Read more on the back-and-forth of Abrego Garcia's case, which began with an errant deportation to El Salvador.