Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia ask judge to keep him in jail over deportation concerns
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE—Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia asked a federal judge in Tennessee on Friday to delay his release from jail because of “contradictory statements” by President Donald Trump’s administration over whether or not he’ll be deported upon release.
A federal judge in Nashville has been preparing to release Abrego Garcia to await trial on human smuggling charges. But she’s been holding off over concerns that U.S. immigration officials would swiftly detain him and try to deport him again.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys are now asking the judge to continue to detain him following statements by Trump administration officials “because we cannot put any faith in any representation made on this issue by” the Justice Department.
“The irony of this request is not lost on anyone,” the attorneys wrote.
Illegal entry
Abrego Garcia, a construction worker who entered the United States illegally and had been living in Maryland, became a flashpoint over Trump’s hardline immigration policies when he was mistakenly deported in March to his native El Salvador.
Facing mounting pressure and a Supreme Court order, Trump’s Republican administration returned him this month to face the smuggling charges.
Justice Department spokesman Chad Gilmartin told The Associated Press on Thursday that the department intends to try Abrego Garcia on the smuggling charges before it moves to deport him, stating that Abrego Garcia “has been charged with horrific crimes, including trafficking children, and will not walk free in our country again.”
Hours earlier, Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn told a federal judge in Maryland that the U.S. government plans to deport Abrego Garcia to a “third country” that isn’t El Salvador after his release from custody.
Third country
“In a just world, he would not seek to prolong his detention further,” his attorneys wrote. “And yet the government—a government that has, at all levels, told the American people that it is bringing Mr. Abrego back home to the United States to face ‘American justice’—apparently has little interest in actually bringing this case to trial.”
‘Not guilty’
Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty on June 13 to smuggling charges that his attorneys have characterized as an attempt to justify his mistaken expulsion to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
Those charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding in Tennessee, during which Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with nine passengers without luggage and a large amount of cash.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville wrote in a ruling Sunday that federal prosecutors failed to show that Abrego Garcia was a flight risk or a danger to the community.
During a court hearing Wednesday, Holmes set specific conditions for Abrego Garcia’s release that included him living with his brother, a U.S. citizen, in Maryland. But she held off on releasing him over concerns that prosecutors can’t prevent US Immigration and Customs Enforcement from deporting him.
