Justice Department says Kilmar Abrego Garcia will face US trial before
any move to deport him again
[June 27, 2025]
By BEN FINLEY and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department said Thursday that it intends
to try Kilmar Abrego Garcia on federal smuggling charges in Tennessee
before it moves to deport him, addressing fears that he could be
expelled again from the U.S. within days.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville, Tennessee, recently
ruled that Abrego Garcia has a right to be released from jail while
awaiting trial on the smuggling charges. But she decided Wednesday to
keep him in custody for at least a few more days over concerns that U.S.
immigration officials would swiftly detain him and try to deport him
again.
But DOJ spokesperson Chad Gilmartin told The Associated Press that
Abrego Garcia will first be tried in court on the charges.
“This defendant has been charged with horrific crimes, including
trafficking children, and will not walk free in our country again,”
Gilmartin said.
Abrego Garcia became a flashpoint over President Donald Trump's hardline
immigration policies when he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in
March. Facing mounting pressure and a Supreme Court order, the Trump
administration returned him this month to face the smuggling charges,
which Abrego Garcia's attorneys characterized as an attempt to justify
his erroneous deportation.
As Abrego Garcia's criminal case has moved forward, concerns grew that
he would be swiftly deported upon his release from jail in Tennessee.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers filed an emergency request Thursday to a federal
judge in Maryland to order the government to take Abrego Garcia to that
state upon release, an arrangement that would prevent his deportation
before trial.
“If this Court does not act swiftly, then the Government is likely to
whisk Abrego Garcia away to some place far from Maryland,” Abrego
Garcia’s attorneys wrote.
Abrego Garcia had lived and worked as a construction worker in Maryland
with his American wife and children for more than a decade before his
deportation in March. His wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, is suing the
Trump administration over his deportation in the Maryland federal court
where Abrego Garcia's attorneys filed their emergency request.
“We have concerns that the government may try to remove Mr. Abrego
Garcia quickly over the weekend,” one of his attorneys, Jonathan Cooper,
told U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland, during a
conference call Thursday afternoon.
Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn acknowledged on the call that
the U.S. government plans to deport Abrego Garcia to a “third country”
that isn’t El Salvador. But he said there was no timeline for the
deportation plans.
“We do plan to comply with the orders we’ve received from this court and
other courts,” he said. “But there’s no timeline for these specific
proceedings.”
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This courtroom sketch depicts Kilmar Abrego Garcia sitting in court
during his detention hearing on Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in
Nashville, Tenn. (Diego Fishburn via AP)
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson posted on X later Thursday:
“Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States to face trial for
the egregious charges against him. He will face the full force of
the American justice system — including serving time in American
prison for the crimes he’s committed.”
Xinis said during the conference call that she could not move as
quickly as Abrego Garcia’s attorneys would like. She said she had to
consider the Trump administration’s pending motions to dismiss the
case before she could rule on the emergency request. The judge
scheduled a July 7 court hearing in Maryland to discuss the
emergency request and other matters.
When the Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia, it violated a
U.S. immigration judge’s order in 2019 that barred his expulsion to
his native country. The judge had found that Abrego Garcia faced a
credible threat from gangs who had terrorized him and his family.
The Trump administration described its violation of the immigration
judge’s 2019 order as an administrative error. Trump and other
officials doubled down on claims Abrego Garcia was in the MS-13
gang, an accusation that Abrego Garcia denies.
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.
Holmes, the magistrate judge in Tennessee, 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 U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement from deporting him.
Holmes ordered Abrego Garcia’s lawyers and prosecutors to file
briefs on the matter Thursday and Friday respectively.
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