Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported, can spend Christmas with family

BALTIMORE (AP) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia can spend Christmas with his family after spending much of the year in custody.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, in Maryland, issued an order late on Monday requiring government attorneys to file a brief by Dec. 26 on whether they plan to take him back into immigration custody, and under what legal authority they would do so. His attorneys have until Dec. 30 to respond.

A temporary restraining order that bars Immigration and Customs Enforcement from detaining him remains in place in the meantime.

“This decision means Kilmar gets to sleep in his own bed in the next coming days, without the fear of being separated from his family and community in the middle of the night,” Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, an organizer with the community group CASA, said in an email.

The Salvadoran citizen’s case has become a lightning rod for both sides of the immigration debate as he fights to remain in the U.S. after a mistaken deportation to his home country, where he was imprisoned. Members of President Donald Trump’s administration have accused him of being a member of t...