Kilmar Abrego Garcia to remain in jail while attorneys spar whether
he’ll be swiftly deported
[June 26, 2025]
By TRAVIS LOLLER, JONATHAN MATTISE and KRISTIN M. HALL
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia will remain in jail for at
least a few more days while attorneys in the federal smuggling case
against him spar over whether prosecutors have the ability to prevent
Abrego Garcia’s deportation if he is released to await trial.
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.
A federal Judge has ruled that Abrego Garcia has a right to be released
and even set specific conditions during a court hearing on Wednesday for
him to live with his brother. But Abrego Garcia's attorneys expressed
concern that it would lead to his immediate detention and possible
deportation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes also expressed doubts during the
hearing about her own power to require anything more than prosecutors
using their best efforts to secure the cooperation of ICE.
“I have no reservations about my ability to direct the local U.S.
Attorney’s office,” the judge said. “I don’t think I have any authority
over ICE.”
Holmes did not say when she would file the release order for Abrego
Garcia, but it will not happen before Friday afternoon.
Judge: Government dilemma 'completely of its own making'
Abrego Garcia, who was shackled and wearing a red jumpsuit, was expected
to be released Wednesday, if only into ICE custody. But the court
hearing revealed instead the competing interests between two federal
agencies within the Trump administration.
Acting U.S. Attorney Rob McGuire has said in court and in filings that
one of the reasons he wants Abrego Garcia to stay in jail is to ensure
that he remains in the country and isn't deported by ICE.
McGuire told the judge during Wednesday's hearing that he would do “the
best I can” to secure the cooperation of the Department of Homeland
Security, which includes ICE. But the prosecutor noted, “That’s a
separate agency with separate leadership and separate directions. I will
coordinate, but I can’t tell them what to do.”
But Abrego Garcia’s attorney, Sean Hecker, countered that the Department
of Justice and Homeland Security are both within the executive branch
and seem to cooperate on other things. For example, ICE has agreed not
to deport cooperating witnesses who agreed to testify against Abrego
Garcia.
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors had tried to stay Holmes' release order.
But it was denied by another federal judge on Wednesday afternoon, who
wrote that the government was asking the court to “save it from itself”
in a situation that was “completely of its own making.”
U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw, Jr. wrote that federal
prosecutors should be making their arguments to DHS, not a court,
“because the Department of Justice and DHS can together prevent the harm
the Government contends it faces.”
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This courtroom sketch depicts, from left, attorney Sean Hecker,
Kilmar Abrego Garcia and attorney Rascoe Dean in court during
Garcia's detention hearing on Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in
Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Diego Fishburn)
“If the Government finds this case to be as high priority as it
argues here, it is incumbent upon it to ensure that Abrego is held
accountable for the charges in the Indictment,” Crenshaw wrote. “If
the Department of Justice and DHS cannot do so, that speaks for
itself.”
Crenshaw, however, will allow prosecutors to file a brief in support
of a motion to revoke the magistrate’s release order. An evidentiary
hearing is scheduled for July 16.
In court on wedding anniversary
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, the magistrate judge, wrote in a ruling on Sunday 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 Abrego Garcia 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.
Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, said during a news
conference before Wednesday’s hearing that it’s been 106 days since
he “was abducted by the Trump administration and separated from our
family.” She noted that he has missed family birthdays, graduations
and Father’s Day, while “today he misses our wedding anniversary.”
Vasquez Sura said their love, their faith in God and an abundance of
community support have helped them persevere.
“Kilmar should never have been taken away from us,” she said. “This
fight has been the hardest thing in my life.”
___
Associated Press reporter Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia,
contributed to this report.
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