By Devan Cole, CNN

(CNN) — A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from once again detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia, hours after the judge ordered him to be released from an immigration detention facility.

The temporary restraining order issued early Friday by US District Judge Paula Xinis is the latest setback in the US government’s ongoing efforts to deport Abrego Garcia, who has become a national symbol of the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies.

After being wrongly deported to El Salvador in March, Abrego Garcia was brought back to the US earlier this year to face federal criminal charges and was later held for months at an immigration detention facility in Pennsylvania. He was released on Thursday after Xinis found that the government was unlawfully detaining him in part because there was no order of removal from an immigration judge during that period.

But early Friday, his attorneys raced back to Xinis seeking a new court order barring his detention.

They pointed to a document issued late Thursday by an immigration judge that they said put him at risk of being deported again and stressed that they needed emergency intervention from Xinis given the fact that he had to report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore Friday morning, where they feared he may be re-detained.

“If, as Abrego Garcia suspects, Respondents will take him into custody this morning, then his liberty will be restricted once again. It is beyond dispute that unlawful detention visits irreparable harm,” Xinis wrote in her brief order.

The judge said her order will remain in effect until she’s able to hold a hearing over the issue.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said Friday morning that his client will not be re-arrested that day and that he’s expected to leave the ICE field office after his appointment concludes.

CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.