Immigration judge denies bid to reopen 2019 asylum proceedings

A U.S. immigration judge on Wednesday denied a bid to reopen the 2019 asylum proceedings of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national whose deportation and return to the United States earlier this year have drawn national attention. The ruling, issued in Baltimore, leaves in place a final order of removal, though Abrego Garcia has 30 days to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Regional Deputy Chief Immigration Judge Philip Taylor said the motion to reopen was untimely, arriving nearly six years after the litigation over Abrego Garcia's 2012 illegal entry began and well past the 90 day deadline for such filings. Taylor also found the evidence insufficient to show Abrego Garcia would face torture or death if returned to El Salvador, noting that Salvadoran prison officials had questioned him and recorded his tattoos but had not documented mistreatment.

Abrego Garcia, 29, has an American wife and children and has lived in Maryland for years. He first sought protection from removal in 2019 and was granted a limited withholding of removal based on fears of persecution in El Salvador. In March he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador and held in a prison there, a sequence of...