Paula Xinis

Paula Xinis (; born Panagiota Xinis in 1968) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a United States district judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. She was appointed in 2016 by President Barack Obama. She is best known for her role as judge in the deportation case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, receiving national and worldwide attention.

Biography

Xinis is of Greek ancestry. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude, in 1991 from the University of Virginia. She received a Juris Doctor in 1997 from Yale Law School. She began her legal career as a law clerk for Judge Diana Gribbon Motz of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, from 1997 to 1998. From 1998 to 2011, she served as an assistant federal public defender, serving as director of Training for the office from 2006 to 2011. She served at the law firm of Murphy, Falcon & Murphy in Baltimore, Maryland, as a senior trial attorney from 2011 and as a partner from 2013 to 2016. She practiced both civil and criminal litigation.

Federal judicial service

On March 26, 2015, President Barack Obama nominated Xinis to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, to the seat vacated by Judge Deborah K. Chasanow, who assumed senior status on October 3, 2014. Her nomination was reported from the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 17, 2015, by a voice vote. On May 16, 2016, the Senate confirmed her nomination by a 53–34 vote. She received her judicial commission on May 18, 2016. He was returned on June 6, 2025, but held in custody pending other removal efforts by the government, with a brief release in August, until December 11, 2025, when Xinis granted Garcia's habeas petition to release him from custody, and he was released.