Judge bars ICE from immediately taking Abrego Garcia into custody if
he’s released from jail
[July 24, 2025]
By BEN FINLEY
A federal judge in Maryland has prohibited the Trump administration from
taking Kilmar Abrego Garcia into immediate immigration custody if he’s
released from jail in Tennessee while awaiting trial on human smuggling
charges, according to an order issued Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the U.S. government to provide
notice of three business days if Immigration and Customs Enforcement
intends to initiate deportation proceedings against him.
The judge also ordered the government to restore the federal supervision
that Abrego Garcia was under before he was wrongfully deported to his
native El Salvador in March. That supervision had allowed Abrego Garcia
to live and work in Maryland for years, while he periodically checked in
with ICE.
“Defendants have done little to assure the Court that absent
intervention, Abrego Garcia’s due process rights will be protected,”
Xinis wrote in her order.
Abrego Garcia became a prominent face in the debate over President
Donald Trump’s immigration policies following his wrongful explusion to
El Salvador in March. Trump’s administration violated a U.S. immigration
judge’s order in 2019 that shields Abrego Garcia from deportation to El
Salvador because he likely faces threats of gang violence there.
The smuggling case stems from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding, during
which Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with nine passengers. Police
in Tennessee suspected human smuggling, but he was allowed to drive on.
Abrego Garcia's criminal attorneys in the Tennessee case want him
released from jail to await trial, but only if he won't be taken into
ICE custody and deported. A federal judge in that criminal case on
Wednesday affirmed that Abrego Garcia is eligible for release. U.S.
District Judge Waverly Crenshaw ruled that appropriate release
conditions will mitigate any risk of flight or any danger to the
community.
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Crenshaw then sent the case back to U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara
Holmes, who originally held that Abrego Garcia is eligible for
release last month. Holmes has held off on ordering his release at
the request of Abrego Garcia’s own lawyers. On Wednesday, she signed
yet another order putting off his release from jail, this time for
30 days.
U.S. officials have said they’ll try to deport Abrego Garcia to a
country that isn’t El Salvador, such as Mexico or South Sudan,
before his trial starts in January because they allege he’s a danger
to the community.
Abrego Garcia’s American wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, is suing the
Trump administration in Xinis’ Maryland court over his wrongful
deportation in March and is trying to prevent another expulsion.
U.S. officials have argued that Abrego Garcia can be deported
because he came to the U.S. illegally around 2011 and because a U.S.
immigration judge deemed him eligible for expulsion in 2019,
although not to his native El Salvador. Following the 2019 decision,
Abrego Garcia was released under federal supervision, received a
federal work permit and checked in with ICE each year, his attorneys
have said.
The Trump administration recently stated in court documents that
they revoked Abrego Garcia’s supervised release when they deported
him in March, claiming that he was in the MS-13 gang.
____
Associated Press writer Travis Loller contributed from Nashville,
Tenn.
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