U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis on Monday issued a temporary restraining order preventing immigration authorities from deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda, minutes after the Maryland resident filed an emergency habeas corpus petition. The order bars Immigration and Customs Enforcement from removing him from the continental United States while the court reviews whether the government is giving him a fair chance to contest his removal. Xinis, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, said she intends to keep the stay in place at least through an evidentiary hearing scheduled for Friday. She directed the Justice Department and Abrego Garcia’s lawyers to submit additional briefs this week and warned government lawyers that "your clients are absolutely forbidden at this juncture to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia from the continental United States." Abrego Garcia, a father of three who has lived in Maryland for nearly two decades, was deported to El Salvador in March despite an earlier court order blocking his removal. The Trump administration flew him back to the United States in June to face an unrelated federal human-trafficking case in Tennessee. His attorneys say officials now plan to send him to Uganda, a country where he claims he risks persecution and torture; he has asked instead to be transferred to Costa Rica, which he says is willing to accept him. The dispute underscores the continuing clash between the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation tactics and federal courts’ insistence on due-process protections for non-citizens. Xinis has presided over multiple rounds of litigation involving Abrego Garcia, and her latest order keeps him in a Virginia detention center while the court decides whether the government may lawfully remove him.