A federal judge blocked the government from re-detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia at a scheduled Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in on Friday morning.

The intervention came after the same judge ruled Thursday that the Trump administration lacked the legal authority to continue holding Abrego in an immigration detention center.

Abrego was detained during a similar scheduled check-in in August.

Ahead of the check-in, Abrego addressed a crowd of supporters outside the courthouse in Spanish.

“I stand before you as a free man, and I want you to remember me this way, with my head held up high,” Abrego said. “I stand here today with my head held up high, and I will continue to fight and stand firm against all the injustices this government has done upon me.”

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In her Thursday ruling, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland ordered that Abrego be released from the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania, citing a lack of a final order of removal for him.

“His removal cannot be considered reasonably foreseeable, imminent, or consistent with due process,” Xinis wrote in a memo. She continued, “Since Abrego Garcia’s wrongful detention in El Salvador, he has been re-detained, again without lawful authority.”

On Friday, she granted a request by his attorneys which blocks the Trump administration from re-detaining Abrego until she can conduct a hearing on the Temporary Restraining Order his attorneys had filed. Xinis also reminded the parties of her order from months ago that says the government must give Abrego 72 hours of written notice if they intend to deport him to another country.

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The Department of Homeland Security criticized the order.

“This is naked judicial activism by an Obama appointed judge,” Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokeswoman, wrote on social media. “This order lacks any valid legal basis and we will continue to fight this tooth and nail in the courts.”

After Abrego’s return to the United States, the Trump administration detained him and has threatened to send him to multiple African countries and Costa Rica.

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