Federal judge calls deportation of Salvadoran man in Maryland 'wholly lawless'

A federal judge's 22-page decision on Sunday called the deportation of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia "wholly lawless."

Abrego Garcia, 29, was deported to an El Salvadoran megaprison last month for being an alleged MS-13 gang member. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the Department of Homeland Security and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S., where he was living in Maryland. 

"Although the legal basis for the mass removal of hundreds of individuals to El Salvador remains disturbingly unclear, Abrego Garcia’s case is categorically different—there were no legal grounds whatsoever for his arrest, detention, or removal," Xinis wrote. 

"Nor does any evidence suggest that Abrego Garcia is being held in CECOT at the behest of Salvadoran authorities to answer for crimes in that country. Rather, his detention appears wholly lawless," she continued. 

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