Kilmar Abrego Garcia won another reprieve from deportation Wednesday after a federal judge ruled that he can’t be booted from the country for at least another five weeks.

Judge Paula Xinis, an Obama appointee to the U.S. District Court in Maryland, said she needs time to decide on aspects of Mr. Abrego Garcia’s case and needs to preserve her jurisdiction over him.

She said he can’t be deported before she holds a hearing on Oct. 6, and said she could envision keeping the bar in place until she issues a final ruling, which could come 30 days later.

Meanwhile, Mr. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said they have filed an asylum claim for the illegal immigrant, saying he could face persecution if he doesn’t remain in the U.S.

That process will play out in an immigration court, separate from Judge Xinis.

But Judge Xinis said she can hear Mr. Abrego Garcia’s separate challenge to Homeland Security’s announcement that it wants to deport him to Uganda, and that’s why she needs to keep him close.

“He will remain in custody within a 200-mile radius of the court,” she said during the Wednesday hearing.

The administration said it objects to the judge’s interference but said it would comply with the demand.

Trump officials say Mr. Abrego Garcia is a dangerous member of MS-13 and a criminal to boot. They have secured a criminal indictment charging him with migrant smuggling.

That case remains pending in Tennessee, but a judge ordered that he couldn’t be held on pretrial detention in that matter.

Once he was released from jail last week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it would pursue deportation against him.

He was ordered deported in 2019, though a judge said he couldn’t be sent back to his home country of El Salvador because of fear of gang violence there.

He was deported to El Salvador anyway on March 15, igniting a massive legal fight. Judge Xinis ruled the deportation unlawful and demanded his return, but the administration resisted until it won the indictment.

It brought him back and said he would never be set free again, but between Judge Waverly Crenshaw in Tennessee and Judge Xinis, he did win his freedom — from Friday afternoon to Monday morning, when ICE rearrested him for the immigration case.

If he wins asylum, it could open a path to citizenship in the U.S.

At the same time, he’s fighting the specific deportation to Uganda.

“If the motion is granted, it would be a sea change,” said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, Mr. Abrego Garcia’s lawyer.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.