A federal immigration judge on Wednesday declined the request by Kilmar Abrego Garcia to reopen his immigration case, based partially on claims that his March deportation and his June return to face federal human smuggling charges materially changed his immigration status. On the same day, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) informed the court that the federal government shutdown would prevent its lawyers from proceeding with work on the civil lawsuit seeking to block the immigration authorities from deporting Abrego Garcia to Eswatini, the landlocked African nation.

Immigration Judge Philip P. Taylor, who was appointed during the first Trump administration, reportedly found "insufficient evidence" to reopen the case, including a lack of evidence suggesting the Trump administration sough

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