Kilmar Abrego Garcia is expected to be released from jail only to be
taken into immigration custody
[June 25, 2025]
By TRAVIS LOLLER
NASHVILLE,
Tenn. (AP) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia is expected to be released from jail
in Tennessee on Wednesday, only to be taken into immigration custody.
The
Salvadoran national whose mistaken deportation became a flashpoint in
the fight over President Donald Trump’s immigration policies has been in
jail since he was returned to the U.S. on June 7, facing two counts of
human smuggling. |
Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia of Maryland, who
was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, right, stands with supporters
during a news conference at CASA's Multicultural Center in Hyattsville,
Md., April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, FIle) |
|
On Sunday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes ruled that
Abrego Garcia does not have to remain in jail ahead of that
trial. On Wednesday afternoon, she will set his conditions of
release and allow him to go, according to her order. However,
both his defense attorneys and prosecutors have said they expect
him to be taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement as soon as he is released on the criminal charges.
In addition, federal prosecutors are appealing Holmes' release
order. Among other things, they expressed concern in a motion
filed on Sunday that Abrego Garcia could be deported before he
faces trial. Holmes has said previously that she won't step
between the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland
Security. It is up to them to decide whether they want to deport
Abrego Garcia or prosecute him.
Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty on June 13 to smuggling charges
that his attorneys have characterized as an attempt to justify
his mistaken deportation in March 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. At his detention hearing, Homeland Security
Special Agent Peter Joseph testified that he did not begin
investigating Abrego Garcia until April of this year.
Holmes said in her Sunday ruling that federal prosecutors failed
to show that Abrego Garcia was a flight risk or a danger to the
community. He has lived for more than a decade in Maryland,
where he and his American wife are raising three children.
However, Holmes referred to her own ruling as “little more than
an academic exercise,” noting that ICE plans to detain him. It
is less clear what will happen after that. Although he can't be
deported to El Salvador — where an immigration judge found he
faces a credible threat from gangs — he is still deportable to a
third country as long as that country agrees to not send him to
El Salvador.
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