Immigration judge denies Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s bid for asylum, but he
has 30 days to appeal
[October 03, 2025]
By TRAVIS LOLLER
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A U.S. immigration judge has denied a bid for
asylum from Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose case has become a proxy for the
partisan power struggle over immigration policy.
The judge in Baltimore on Wednesday rejected an application to reopen
Abrego Garcia's 2019 asylum case, but that is not the final word. Abrego
Garcia has 30 days to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals.
The Salvadoran national has an American wife and children and has lived
in Maryland for years, but he immigrated to the United States illegally
as a teenager. In 2019, he was arrested by immigration agents. He
requested asylum but was not eligible because he had been in the U.S.
for more than a year. But the judge ruled he could not be deported to El
Salvador, where he faced danger from a gang that targeted his family.
He was mistakenly deported to El Salvador by President Donald Trump's
administration in March and was held in a notorious prison, and his case
soon became a rallying point for those who oppose the Republican
president’s immigration crackdown. Facing a ruling from the Supreme
Court, the administration returned him to the U.S. in June, only to
immediately charge him with human smuggling.
Abrego Garcia faces criminal charges in Tennessee, based on a 2022
traffic stop. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is also seeking
to deport him to a third country, proposing Uganda first and then
Eswatini, a small country in southern Africa where the king still holds
absolute power. His attorneys have denounced the criminal charges and
the deportation efforts, saying they are an attempt to punish him for
standing up to the administration.
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Abrego Garcia's request to reopen his asylum case is a calculated
risk. If approved, asylum could provide him with a green card and a
path to citizenship. But if he loses, an immigration judge could
remove his protection from being returned to his native country.
That could place him back in the infamous Terrorism Confinement
Center, or CECOT. It’s where, he alleges in a lawsuit, he suffered
severe beatings, sleep deprivation and psychological torture. El
Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, has denied those allegations.
Trump administration officials have waged a relentless public
relations campaign against Abrego Garcia, repeatedly referring to
him as a member of the MS-13 gang, among other things, despite the
fact he has not been convicted of any crimes.
His lawyers have filed motions requesting a gag order and say he
will not be able to receive a fair trial because of the “highly
prejudicial, inflammatory, and false statements" made about him.
While the federal judge in Tennessee can order prosecutors there not
to make any prejudicial statements about Abrego Garcia, it is
unclear whether the judge's authority extends to the Department of
Homeland Security, 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," according to the post.
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