An immigration judge has shut the door on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s bid to reopen his deportation case — a decisive blow to the alleged MS-13 gangster’s attempt to remain in the United States.
Abrego Garcia, once deported to El Salvador, had filed an emergency motion in August claiming he was newly eligible for asylum. But Regional Deputy Chief Immigration Judge Philip Taylor dismissed the plea as “untimely,” nearly six years after his original proceedings, according to court documents obtained by ABC News.
The Department of Homeland Security greeted the ruling as final justice.
“With today’s ruling, Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s final order of removal stands,” DHS declared. “This MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, domestic abuser, and child predator will never be loose on American streets.”
The agency’s statement cut sharper still: “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. He will never be allowed to prey on innocent Americans again.”
With today’s ruling, Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s final order of removal stands.
This MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, domestic abuser, and child predator will never be loose on American streets.
His lawyers tried to fight his removal from the U.S. but one thing is certain,…
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) October 1, 2025
By law, asylum must be sought within a year of entering the country. Abrego Garcia failed that test long ago, denied asylum in 2019, though granted temporary withholding of removal.
Deported this spring to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was briefly locked in that nation’s notorious mega-prison before, under pressure from Democratic voices at home, he was returned to the U.S. — not as a refugee, but to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee.
Once a symbol of President Trump’s uncompromising immigration crackdown, Abrego Garcia’s fate now stands as a warning: the law will not bend to shelter predators, and the border is no longer a revolving door.
Judge rejects Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s bid to reopen case, lets removal order stand https://t.co/m42o7rvbci pic.twitter.com/ySgHyWUinz
— New York Post (@nypost) October 2, 2025
