Judge blocks ICE from re-detaining Abrego Garcia - but signals ruling could come fast

Kilmar Abrego Garcia speaks for first time after release from federal immigration custody Kilmar Abrego Garcia speaks for first time after release from federal immigration custody. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis on Monday extended a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from immediately re-detaining Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, after the government again failed to produce a final removal order. Xinis agreed to keep in place the TRO she issued earlier this month, which ordered Abrego Garcia's release from ICE custody and blocked immigration authorities from immediately re-detaining him. The extension granted Monday rested on the court's earlier determination that ICE had not obtained a final court order needed to remove Abrego Garcia from the U.S. Without that removal order, Xinis said, Abrego Garcia could not remain detained in immigration custody. Ultimately, Monday's hearing ended with little in the way of new information, including any information related to the deportation document or the other details Xinis has long requested from the Justice Department in order to effectuate his removal. Instead, the proceedings were punctuated by statements of frustration from Xinis - the judge who has presided over Abrego Garcia's civil case since March - as she tried and failed to ascertain the status of the same deportation order she cited as the basis for his release from ICE custody 10 days earlier. "I don't know what the government's position is," Xinis said Monday, exasperated. US JUDGE VOWS TO RULE 'SOON' ON ABREGO GARCIA'S FATE AFTER MARATHON HEARING A side-by-side image of President Donald Trump and protesters holding signs in support of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadorian migrant who was deported to El Salvador in March, in what Trump officials acknowledged was an "administrative error." (Getty Images ) Xinis ultimately adjourned court with a vow to work "as quickly" as possible to issue a ruling. She set a deadline of Friday - one day after Christmas - for the Justice Department to submit additional information on its removal plans, including the deportation document and third country of removal. She also ordered additional information from the plaintiffs, due by the end of the month. Lawyers for Abrego reiterated on Monday that his preferred country of removal is Costa Rica, which had agreed to accept him in August. Xinis noted that the government told her in court last month that Costa Rica had rescinded its offer to accept Abrego Garcia; a subsequent declaration submitted by a government official for the country clarified that it had not. She used her earlier order to excoriate what she described as the government's "persistent refusal to acknowledge Costa Rica as a viable removal option, their threats to send Abrego Garcia to African countries that never agreed to take him, and their misrepresentation to the Court that Liberia is now the only country available to Abrego Garcia, all reflect that whatever purpose was behind his detention, it was not for the ‘basic purpose’ of timely third-country removal." Xinis reiterated these concerns Monday. ABREGO GARCIA LAWYERS ASK US...

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