'I stand before you a free man', says Kilmar Abrego Garcia as judge blocks ICE from detaining him

A US federal judge has barred Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia hours after his release from custody.

Abrego Garcia, who became a flashpoint of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown earlier this year when he was wrongly deported to El Salvador, was freed from an ICE detention facility in Pennsylvania on Thursday.

He appeared on Friday morning for an appointment at an ICE field office, some 14 hours after he was released on a judge's orders.

Abrego Garcia stopped at a news conference outside the building, escorted by a group of supporters chanting, "We are all Kilmar!"

"I stand before you a free man and I want you to remember me this way, with my head held up high," Abrego Garcia said through a translator. "I come here today with so much hope and I thank God who has been with me since the start with my family."

He called on supporters to keep campaigning.

"I stand here today with my head held high and I will continue to fight and stand firm against all of the injustices this government has done upon me," Abrego Garcia said. "Regardless of this administration, I believe this is a country of laws and I believe that this injustice will come to an end."

When he had finished speaking, Abrego Garcia went through security at the field office, escorted by supporters.

His lawyers had asked the judge to block authorities from detaining him again.

US District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland said officials cannot re-detain him until the court conducts a hearing on the motion for the temporary restraining order.

Abrego Garcia, 30, who was taken into custody in August, returned to his home in Beltsville, Maryland, a few hours after his release from detention on Thursday.

He was freed from ICE custody just before 5pm following a court ruling by Judge Xinis in Maryland. She wrote federal authorities detained him after he returned to the US without any legal basis.

Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported and then returned to the US, is a Salvadoran citizen with an American wife and child who has lived in Maryland for years.

He entered the country illegally as a teenager to join his brother who had become a US citizen.

In 2019, an immigration judge granted him protection from being deported back to El Salvador, where he said he faced danger from a gang that targeted his family.

Though he was permitted to live and work in the US under ICE supervision, he was not handed residency status.

Earlier this year, he was mistakenly deported and detained in a Salvadoran prison, despite having no criminal record.

Facing growing public pressure and a court order, the Trump administration brought him back to the US in June, but only after issuing an arrest warrant on human smuggling charges in Tennessee.

Abrego Garcia, who has applied for asylum in the US, has pleaded not guilty to those charges and asked a federal judge there to dismiss them.

He was released from jail in Tennessee, but taken into custody again.

The 2019 settlement found he had a "well-founded fear" of danger in El Salvador if he was deported. Instead, ICE has been looking to deport him to a series of African countries.

Abrego Garcia has sued, claiming the Trump administration is illegally using the removal process to punish him for the public humiliation caused by his deportation.

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In her order releasing Abrego Garcia, the judge wrote that federal authorities "did not just stonewall" the court, "they affirmatively misled the tribunal".

The Department of Homeland Security strongly criticised the court order and vowed to lodge an appeal, calling the ruling "naked judicial activism" by a judge appointed during the Obama administration.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also told reporters the Trump administration would be appealing against the decision.

Abrego Garcia's lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said he was prepared to defend his client against further attempts to deport him.

He said the judge made it clear the government cannot detain someone indefinitely without legal authority and that his client "has endured more than anyone should ever have to".

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