Abrego
Garcia
Photo
by:
Graeme
Sloan/Bloomberg
via
Getty
Images
Today
a
federal
court
rejected
the
“let’s
just
ignore
the
last
year”
theory
advanced
by
the
government
in
the
saga
of
Kilmar
Abrego
Garcia.
Abrego
Garcia
is,
of
course,
the
man
the
Trump
administration
famously
and
wrongly
deported
to
an
El
Salvadoran
slave
labor
camp
and
then
spent
the
better
part
of
a
year
trying
to
punish
for
embarrassing
them
by
surviving.
U.S.
District
Judge
Paula
Xinis
ruled
that
Abrego
Garcia
cannot
be
detained
again
by
Immigration
and
Customs
Enforcement,
because
the
statutory
90-day
removal
period
that
would
allow
ICE
to
hold
him
expired
“long
ago.”
Although
all
parties
agreed
to
a
retroactive
correction
of
the
immigration
record,
Judge
Xinis
made
clear
that
paperwork
time
travel
doesn’t
revive
expired
detention
authority.
“The
‘removal
period’
for
which
Abrego
Garcia’s
detention
had
been
compelled
was
over
long
ago,”
she
wrote.
“Respondents’
reading
would
also
conveniently
erase
this
last
year
of
Abrego
Garcia’s
Detention,”
she
wrote,
adding
that
the
Trump
administration
“cannot
alter
substantive
rights
or
rewrite
history.”
Since
August
2025,
ICE
has
floated
what
Judge
Xinis
described
as
“phantom
removals
to
three
(maybe
four)
African
countries,”
that
were
“empty
threats”
with
“no
real
chance
of
success.”
Meanwhile,
the
one
country
that
has
consistently
offered
to
accept
Abrego
Garcia
and
that
he
is
willing
to
go
to
(Costa
Rica),
has
been
deliberately
ignored.
Which
tells
you
the
Trump
administration’s
dogged
pursuit
of
Abrego
Garcia
is
not
about
removal,
but
about
the
vindictive,
cruel
desire
to
make
an
example
of
him.
“In
her
decision
today,
she
recognized
that
if
the
government
were
truly
trying
to
remove
Mr.
Abrego
Garcia
from
the
United
States,
they
would
have
sent
him
to
Costa
Rica
long
before
today,”
Simon
Sandoval-Moshenberg,
an
attorney
for
Abrego
Garica
said.
“We
hope
the
government
does
not
appeal
this
order,
and
instead
finally
comes
to
the
table
in
good
faith
to
work
out
the
details
of
a
removal
plan
to
Costa
Rica.”
That
hope
may
be
optimistic.
But
Judge
Xinis
has
now
made
it
very
clear
that
the
government
doesn’t
get
to
keep
a
man
in
legal
limbo
forever
just
to
save
face.
Kathryn
Rubino
is
a
Senior
Editor
at
Above
the
Law,
host
of
The
Jabot
podcast,
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
AtL
tipsters
are
the
best,
so
please
connect
with
her.
Feel
free
to
email
her
with
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments
and
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@Kathryn1 or
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@[email protected].