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Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s fight with the Trump administration over deportation has played out across multiple courts, with key rulings shaping where U.S. immigration officials say he may be sent. The Associated Press laid out a timeline of the case that stretches from Garcia’s arrival in the United States to later battles over “third country” removal attempts and related criminal charges.

Garcia entered the U.S. after fleeing El Salvador as a teenager, arriving around 2011. On March 28, 2019, he was arrested outside a Maryland hardware store, where police accused him of being a gang member and turned him over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In immigration court, a Maryland immigration judge ruled on Oct. 10, 2019, that Garcia could not be deported to El Salvador, where, the AP timeline says, a gang had threatened his family. The judge issued him a work permit and placed him under federal supervision.

Despite that ruling, the timeline says ICE detained Garcia in Baltimore on March 12, 2025, while he was driving home with his 5-year-old son. Three days later, March 15, 2025, the AP reported that Garcia was mistakenly deported to El Salvador and held in a prison described as notoriously brutal.

The case then reached the U.S. Supreme Court. On April 10, 2025, the court said the Trump administration must work to bring Garcia back, according to the AP timeline.

After Garcia returned to the U.S., the legal fight shifted again. On June 6, 2025, the AP timeline says he was charged with human smuggling in Tennessee, with prosecutors tying the case to a traffic stop from 2022. The AP timeline says Garcia pleaded not guilty and asked that the case be dismissed, characterizing the prosecution as punishment.

Meanwhile, the administration continued to pursue removals. The AP timeline says that starting July 23, 2025, ICE announced plans to remove Garcia to a series of African countries, but a Maryland federal judge blocked the effort through an injunction that kept him from being deported on that schedule.

The timeline also describes a period of release from the Tennessee jail. Garcia was released from jail on Aug. 22, 2025, to return to his family in Maryland and await trial. Within minutes of his release, the AP reported that ICE sent notice that it intended to deport him to Uganda.

Garcia then faced another custody move. The AP timeline says he reported to an immigration office in Baltimore on Aug. 25, 2025, and was taken into custody. A federal judge in Maryland later ordered ICE to release him on Dec. 11, 2025, and a separate ruling on Feb. 17, 2026, said ICE could not re-detain him.

MSI previously reported that a federal judge said ICE could not re-detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia, ending his detention; the AP timeline places that outcome within the broader chain of legal fights over deportation and removal destinations.