BALTIMORE — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose case has become a flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s aggressive effort to remove noncitizens from the U.S., was detained by immigration authorities in Baltimore on Monday to face renewed efforts to deport him after a brief period of freedom.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys quickly filed a lawsuit to fight those removal efforts until a court has heard his claim for protection, stating that the U.S. could place him in a country where “his safety cannot be assured.”
The new lawsuit triggered a blanket court order that automatically pauses deportation efforts for two days. The order applies to immigrants in Maryland who are challenging their detention.
Crowd yells ‘shame!’
Abrego Garcia, a 30-year-old Maryland construction worker and Salvadoran national, spoke at a rally before he turned himself in.
“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 said, speaking through a translator. “God will bring justice to all the injustice we are suffering.”
Roughly 200 people had gathered and prayed in front of the Baltimore field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Some held signs with messages such as “Stop Detaining Our Neighbors” and “Free Kilmar.”
The crowd waited outside after Abrego Garcia entered the federal building. When his lawyer and wife walked out without him after his detainment, the crowd yelled “Shame!”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on X that Abrego Garcia was being processed for deportation. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office that Abrego Garcia “will no longer terrorize our country.”
But Abrego Garcia’s lead immigration attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said lawyers will fight the administration’s removal attempts.
“I expect there’s going to be a status conference very promptly, and we’re going to ask for an interim order that he not be deported, pending his due process rights to contest deportation to any particular country,” he said.
Reunion with family
Abrego Garcia was wrongfully deported in March to a notorious prison in his native El Salvador. He was returned to the U.S. in June, only to face human smuggling charges that his lawyers have called preposterous and vindictive.
The Trump administration has said it is trying to deport Abrego Garcia months before his trial is scheduled in Tennessee, alleging that the married father is a danger to the community and an MS-13 gang member. He has denied the gang allegation, pleaded not guilty to smuggling charges and has asked a judge to dismiss the case on ground of vindictive prosecution.
