Ana Faguy - BBC News
Mon, June 23, 2025
[Reuters]
The Trump administration said a Salvadoran man who was mistakenly deported and then brought back to the US on criminal charges will "never go free" on American soil, even though a judge ordered his release.
Kilmar Ábrego García was deported in March as part of an immigration crackdown. Government officials said he was removed in error, but they were unable to bring him back.
Earlier this month, he was sent to the state of Tennessee, where the justice department charged him with human smuggling.
The judge overseeing the case said on Sunday that Mr Ábrego García should be released from custody while he awaits trial. But she noted immigration officials would still have the power to detain him.
"Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a dangerous criminal illegal alien," Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a social media post on Monday.
"We have said it for months and it remains true to this day: he will never go free on American soil."
The department oversees immigration enforcement.
Judge Barbara Holmes said in an opinion on Sunday that "the government failed to prove" that Mr Ábrego García endangered any minor victim, was a flight risk or might attempt to obstruct justice.
She also wrote that once the Justice Department released him, immigration officials would probably take Mr Ábrego García into custody as they work to remove him from the country.
In a federal indictment filed in early June, the government accused Mr Ábrego García of participating in a trafficking conspiracy over several years to move undocumented migrants from Texas to other parts of the country.
LA Times
The charges, which date back to 2016, allege he transported undocumented individuals between Texas and Maryland and other states more than 100 times.
He has pleaded not guilty.
The Trump administration has also accused him of being a member of the MS-13 gang, though Mr Ábrego García and his lawyers have strongly denied that.
Mr Ábrego García was initially deported on 15 March amid an immigration crackdown by the Trump administration, after it invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime law that allows presidents to detain or deport the natives and citizens of an enemy country.
He was taken to the Cecot mega-prison in El Salvador, known for its brutal conditions.
What we know about Kilmar Abrego Garcia and MS-13 allegations
While government lawyers initially said he was taken there as a result of an "administrative error", the Trump administration would not bring him back.
The US Supreme Court ordered the government to "facilitate" his return to his home in the state of Maryland, and a legal battle began over what the court required.
Mr Ábrego García entered the US illegally as a teenager from El Salvador. In 2019, he was arrested with three other men in Maryland and detained by federal immigration authorities.
An immigration judge granted him protection from deportation on the grounds that he might be at risk of persecution from local gangs in his home country.
US brings back El Salvador deportee to face charges
Kilmar Ábrego García pleads not guilty in human trafficking case
US judge to order release of wrongly deported Salvadoran migrant pending trial
AFP
Mon, June 23, 2025
Hundreds of Venezuelan and Salvadoran nationals were sent from the United States to the notorious maximum security CECOT facility in El Salvador (Alex Brandon)Alex Brandon/POOL/AFPMore
A federal judge, in a setback for the Trump administration, has said she plans to order the release of a wrongly deported Salvadoran migrant while he awaits trial on human smuggling charges.
Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, 29, was summarily deported to a maximum security prison in El Salvador in March and brought back to the United States this month.
His case has become a key test of President Donald Trump's hardline deportation policies.
Abrego Garcia was immediately arrested on his return and charged in Nashville, Tennessee, with smuggling undocumented migrants around the United States between 2016 and 2025.
Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty to the charges and a federal magistrate judge said in a ruling on Sunday that prosecutors had not made a convincing argument that he should be detained pending trial.
"The government alleges that Abrego is a long-time, well-known member of MS-13," the notorious Salvadoran gang, Judge Barbara Holmes said in her 51-page ruling.
"But Abrego has no reported criminal history of any kind... and his reputed gang membership is contradicted by the government's own evidence."
"Overall," the judge said, "the strength of the factors weighing in favor of release outweighs all other factors in favor of detention."
Holmes acknowledged, however, that even if she orders Abrego Garcia's release at a hearing on Wednesday he would likely be immediately taken into custody by federal immigration agents to face potential removal proceedings.
"That suggests the Court's determination of the detention issues is little more than an academic exercise," she said. "That suggestion is understandable. But the foundation of the administration of our criminal law depends on the bedrock of due process."
Abrego Garcia was living in the eastern state of Maryland until he became one of more than 200 people sent to the CECOT prison in El Salvador as part of Trump's crackdown on undocumented migrants.
Most of the migrants who were summarily deported were alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration has declared a foreign terrorist organization.
Justice Department lawyers later admitted that Abrego Garcia -- who is married to a US citizen -- was wrongly deported due to an "administrative error."
Abrego Garcia had been living in the United States under protected legal status since 2019, when a judge ruled he should not be deported because he could be harmed in his home country.
cl/dw
From megaprison to federal court, Kilmar Abrego Garcia continues his legal fight
Emma Pitts
Mon, June 23, 2025
Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia of Maryland, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, speaks during a news conference at CASA's Multicultural Center in Hyattsville, Md., April 4, 2025. | Jose Luis Magana
A Tennessee judge denied the Trump administration’s request to detain Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Sunday. However, given the publicity surrounding his case as a focal point in the White House’s crackdown on illegal immigration, it is likely that the man won’t be released.
If he were to be discharged ahead of his federal trial regarding human smuggling charges, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes said, he would likely remain in custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement regardless and ultimately be deported.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a post on X that Abrego Garcia would “never go free on American soil,” and called him “a dangerous criminal illegal alien.”
But Holmes said in her ruling that the accusations of Abrego Garcia being a “flight risk” and a danger to the community were not supported by sufficient evidence. She also pressed the importance of granting him the right to due process, given how he’s been treated thus far.
Accused of being an MS-13 gang member, Abrego Garcia was deported and sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center, a megaprison in El Salvador, last March. He gained national attention as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to deport suspected immigrant gang members living illegally in the U.S. He was seen as a hardened criminal by the administration and as a victim by Trump’s opponents.
After being deported to El Salvador, he was brought back to U.S. soil earlier this month, where he will be facing criminal charges involving an alleged human smuggling incident that occurred in 2022.
The indictment against him accuses Abrego Garcia of being involved in a human smuggling ring that brought in immigrants illegally through the U.S.-Mexico border. It accuses him of making at least 100 trips across the U.S. border.
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, right, speaks with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who was living in Maryland and deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration, in a hotel restaurant in San Salvador, El Salvador, Thursday, April 17, 2025. | Press Office Senator Van Hollen, via Associated PressMore
He’s also been called an “alleged woman beater” by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt after revealing that his wife filed for an order of protection against him in 2021 regarding domestic abuse.
Special Agent Peter T. Joseph told prosecutors in a hearing on June 13 that the 2022 incident involved nine people in the vehicle being driven by Abrego Garcia, who were in the country illegally. Tennessee law enforcement suspected possible smuggling, but he was allowed to go on his way with only a warning.
Still, Holmes said in her ruling that the allegations have yet to be confirmed.
He pleaded not guilty on June 13 to smuggling charges and has yet to be convicted of any crime in the U.S. or in his home country of El Salvador.
Jennifer Vasquez Sura, wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, walks out of the Federal Courthouse on Friday, June 13, 2025 in Nashville, Tenn. | George Walker IV
“That due process demands that every person charged with a federal crime be afforded a presumption of innocence unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and that deprivation of an individual’s liberty prior to trial can occur only in carefully limited circumstances,” Holmes wrote. “Abrego, like every person arrested on federal criminal charges, is entitled to a full and fair determination of whether he must remain in federal custody pending trial. The Court will give Abrego the due process that he is guaranteed.”
Following the order, Sean Hecker, an attorney for Abrego Garcia, said they were “pleased by the court’s thoughtful analysis and its express recognition that Mr. Abrego Garcia is entitled both to due process and the presumption of innocence, both of which our government has worked quite hard to deny him,” per The New York Times.
Protesters gather outside the Federal Courthouse before arguments about whether Kilmar Abrego Garcia can be released from jail on Friday, June 13, 2025 in Nashville, Tenn. | George Walker IV
Kilmar Abrego Garcia likely to be held by ICE after DOJ release order
Sun, June 22, 2025
UPI
June 23 (UPI) -- A federal judge has ordered the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, but the Salvadoran migrant is expected to remain in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody as the Trump administration appeals the court's decision.
Abrego Garcia, who has been living with his family in Maryland, was wrongly deported in March to El Salvador, where he was detained in the infamous CECOT prison. The 29-year-old was returned to the United States earlier this month to face two charges related to human smuggling in Tennessee, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
President Donald Trump's Justice Department asked the court for permission to detain the migrant amid litigation. But U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Tennessee issued her order Sunday, denying the Trump administration's request and acknowledging that, despite her order, Abrego Garcia will likely be transferred to ICT custody rather than remain detained by the Justice Department.
"Perhaps the sole circumstance about which the government and Abrego Abrego may agree in this case is the likelihood that Abrego will remain in custody regardless of the outcome of the issues raised in the government's motion for detention," she said.
"That suggests the Court's determination of the detention issues is little more than an academic exercise."
ICE custody issues fall outside the authority of Holmes' court.
In her order, she said Abrego Garcia has the right to due process. She also accused the Justice Department of overstating the allegations against the defendant.
Abrego Garcia's charges stem from a traffic stop in November 2022. Nine other Hispanic men without documentation and luggage were in the vehicle.
The charging document accuses him of being a member of the MS-13 gang. It alleges that he and others conspired from at least 2016 smuggle migrants into the United States.
Holmes, in her Sunday order, pointed out how the Justice Department interchangeably used "smuggling" and "trafficking," which have distinct meanings in law, with the latter involving the movement of a person against their will, and the former with their cooperation.
She also highlighted a lack of evidence on the government's part in attempting to tie Abrego Garcia to smuggling minors.
The judge also criticized the government's application for detention ahead of trial based on on allegations of the defendant's gang membership.
She said "the government cannot simply rely on the general reputation of a particular street gang" to argue that Abrego Garcia poses a dangerous threat to society. And while gang membership may meet the threshold for detention, the government must prove he is a member of the gang -- allegations that Abrego Garcia has denied.
"Overall, the Court cannot find from the evidence presented that Abrego's release clearly and convincingly poses an irremediable danger to other persons or to the community," Holmes said.
The Justice Department is widely expect to appeal.
Gary Grumbach
Sun, June 22, 2025
NBC
The government on Sunday appealed a federal judge's order to release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia pending trial on human smuggling charges, another chapter in the saga of the Maryland father who had been erroneously deported to El Salvador.
The Trump administration admitted having mistakenly deported Abrego Garcia in March, and the Supreme Court ordered it to facilitate his return.
Upon his return this month, though, Abrego Garcia was hit with federal charges of conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal immigrants for financial gain and unlawful transportation of illegal immigrants for monetary gain. He pleaded not guilty.
“Abrego, like every person arrested on federal criminal charges, is entitled to a full and fair determination of whether he must remain in federal custody pending trial,” U.S. Magistrate Barbara D. Holmes of the Middle District of Tennessee wrote in her opinion Sunday. “The Court will give Abrego the due process that he is guaranteed.”
The government quickly filed a request to stay the order and keep Abrego Garcia in custody, a filing that made it clear it would again subject him to deportation proceedings.
The government argued that a stay, or pause, would allow the court “to conduct meaningful review” of custody ahead of the judge’s ruling on a separate court filing.
“He will remain in custody pending deportation and Judge Holmes’ release order would not immediately release him to the community under any circumstance,” Justice Department lawyers said in request for a stay Sunday.
In concluding Abrego Garcia should be released pending trial, with certain conditions, Holmes faulted the government for its language surrounding the case and indicated he has been so far denied ordinary due process that might come to any defendant.
She noted that government lawyers have used the terms "human smuggling" and "human trafficking" interchangeably, though the former refers to helping someone willfully enter a country, while the latter refers to bringing someone to a country against their will.
She also noted that the government accused Abrego Garcia of being "involved" in transporting a minor as part of the alleged smuggling — without solid and specific evidence of such.
Holmes set a hearing for Wednesday to discuss terms of Abrego Garcia's release and ordered federal authorities to produce him for the event.
She held out little hope that Abrego Garcia would actually be free, however, noting that immigration authorities were likely to detain him upon release because he is alleged to be in the United States without permission.
Uncrowned
"Either Abrego will remain in the custody of the Attorney General or her designee pending trial if detained under the Bail Reform Act or he will likely remain in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ('ICE') custody subject to anticipated removal proceedings that are outside the jurisdiction of this Court," she wrote in her decision.
"That suggests the Court’s determination of the detention issues is little more than an academic exercise," Holmes said.
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