HOUSTON, United States

A US magistrate judge paused the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from federal custody late Wednesday, according to media reports.

The decision came after another judge's ruling that Abrego Garcia, 29, who was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration to an El Salvador prison in March, should be released from federal custody as he awaits human trafficking charges in the state of Tennessee.

Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes ordered a 30-day pause on Abrego Garcia's release from federal custody.

"Abrego shall therefore remain in the custody of the United States Marshal pending further order," Holmes wrote in her ruling.

The pause followed back-to-back rulings from separate federal judges, which ordered Garcia's release from federal custody and blocked his detention by immigration authorities if released.

Abrego Garcia's attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, hailed the rulings and said that the government has been acting against the law from the beginning when his client was originally deported.

"These rulings are a powerful rebuke of the government’s lawless conduct and a critical safeguard for Kilmar’s due process rights," said Sandoval-Moshenberg in a statement.

Abrego Garcia's deportation case has been the focal point of whether the Trump administration’s immigration policy is legal and constitutional.