Third Country Removal for Kilmar Abrego-Garcia -- the Massachusetts and Maryland Cases Are About To Collide

The Fourth Circuit has already laid the foundation for the Maryland Judge's Disappointment

This is a relatively quick turnaround after a hearing this morning in the District of Maryland regarding the status of a pending case there brought by “Maryland Dad” Kilmar Abrego-Garcia and his family connected to his erroneous removal to El Salvador in March 2025. Abrego-Garcia is a reputed member of MS-13, came into the United States illegally, and is subject to a still valid Final Order of Removal issued in 2019. He has no legal basis to contest his removal — the only restriction is that he cannot be removed to El Salvador yet.

Abrego-Garcia was brought back to the United States after he was indicted in the Middle District of Tennessee for smuggling illegal aliens. There is a meaningful difference between “smuggling” and “trafficking,” with “smuggling” a less serious and non-violent crime. A magistrate judge in Tennessee has ordered that he can be released on conditions of pretrial release in the criminal case under the Bail Reform Act. But the DOJ prosecutor on the case said that if that were to happen — which DOJ opposed — then he would be place into ICE custody and removal proceedings would begin. The expectation was that he would be removed to a third country since he currently cannot be sent to El Salvador.

Abrego-Garcia’s attorneys in the Maryland case then filed a motion for emergency relief from Judge Paula Xinis, asking her to Order that ICE bring Abrego-Garcia to the District of Maryland if he was released from custody in the Tennessee case, and forestall any effort by ICE to place him in removal proceedings that might result in him being transported to a third country.

I was not able to listen to the hearing as it was happening, so my understanding is based on “live blogging” accounts online.

Before going into what happened, I want to first turn to the facts and sequence of events that involved the eight criminal aliens who were the subject of proceedings in the District of Massachusetts where District Judge Brian Murphy attempted to prevent their transfer to South Sudan, a country not identified in their Final Order of Removal.