OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
6:34 PM – Thursday, October 2, 2025
A U.S. immigration judge in Baltimore has denied Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s bid to reopen his 2019 asylum case. However, the ruling, issued on Wednesday, doesn’t necessarily mark an end to the ongoing legal fight.
Abrego Garcia has 30 days to make his appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals.
The illegal alien, originally from El Salvador, entered the United States unlawfully as a teenager. In 2019, he was detained by immigration authorities and sought asylum, but was ineligible since he had overstayed his time in the country.
Nonetheless, the immigration judge ruled, at the time, that he would not be deported to El Salvador.
He was then deported to El Salvador by President Donald Trump’s administration in March and was held in the notorious CECOT prison.
His case became a rallying point for critics of the Republican president’s immigration crackdown — despite the fact that Abrego Garcia has been accused of a number of offences, including human smuggling and membership in the MS-13 gang.
After the accused human smuggler and illegal alien was brought back to the U.S., federal authorities swiftly slapped him with charges.
Abrego Garcia now faces criminal charges in Tennessee stemming from the 2022 traffic stop. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is also seeking to deport him to a third country, first proposing Uganda and then Eswatini, a small southern African nation where the king still holds absolute power.
Meanwhile, his attorneys have denounced both the criminal charges and the deportation efforts, calling them an attempt to “punish him for standing up to the administration.”
Abrego Garcia’s request to reopen his asylum case carries high stakes. If granted, it could possibly provide him with a green card and a path to citizenship. If denied, an immigration judge could strip away his protection from deportation to El Salvador, potentially returning him to the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, CECOT, or even being sent to another country with equally severe, or worse, conditions.
Trump administration officials have repeatedly labeled Abrego Garcia a member of the MS-13 gang. They have cited both his hand tattoos and a government source who personally confirmed his membership in the gang.
More recently, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers also filed motions requesting a gag order against both U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, arguing that he will not be able to receive a fair trial due to what they described as “highly prejudicial, inflammatory, and false statements” made about him.
While the federal judge in Tennessee can bar some prosecutors from making “prejudicial” statements, it is unclear whether the judge’s authority extends to the DHS, which posted about the immigration court ruling on X on Wednesday.
“…His lawyers tried to fight his removal from the U.S. but one thing is certain, this Salvadoran man is not going to be able to remain in our country. He will never be allowed to prey on innocent Americans again. Never forget the Democrats flew to a foreign land on the US taxpayer’s dime to break bread with this terrorist gang member and visit him in prison. While they continue to fight for criminal illegal aliens, we will continue to put the safety of the American people FIRST.”
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