Judge Allows Press Access to Previously Sealed Abrego Garcia Court Records

Federal District Court Judge Paula Xinis granted a request by about 20 news organizations to unseal documents previously kept sealed about the case of wrongfully deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

In March, Abrego Garcia was sent to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador without due process and despite an immigration judge’s existing order that he must never be sent to that country.

Xinis unsealed a total of six filings and a transcript from a 30 April 2025 hearing. The transcript and some of the filings will be partially redacted.

In her five page ruling on the press intervenor, Xinis wrote:

The Press Movants rightly contend that, at common law, the public enjoys a presumptive right to access court records, overcome only when outweighed by competing interests. The First Amendment, too, accords the public access, unless there has been a showing of ‘compelling governmental interest, and only if the denial is narrowly tailored to serve that interest.’

She deemed access to court records for the public “critical” to promote “trustworthiness of the judicial process, to curb judicial abuses, and to provide the public with a more complete understanding of the judicial system, including a better perception of fairness.”

The government opposed the request to open the records.

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