By Associated Press’s Ben Finley
On Thursday, federal prosecutors informed a judge that after Kilmar Abrego Garcia is released from a Tennessee jail, the government intends to start removal procedures against him and deport him to a nation other than El Salvador.
However, the prosecutors also stated that their intentions are not yet final and that they would abide by all court orders.
In order to avoid probable attempts by immigration officials to swiftly deport Abrego Garcia, his attorneys had already requested a federal judge in Maryland to order his repatriation to that state upon his release from detention in Tennessee.
After being wrongfully deported to his home country of El Salvador in March, the Maryland construction worker became a focal point of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Since his return to the United States on June 7th to face federal allegations of human smuggling, he has been incarcerated in Tennessee.
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Nashville’s U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes has decided that Abrego Garcia is entitled to be freed pending trial. She was worried that U.S. immigration officials would quickly attempt to deport him again, so on Wednesday she decided to keep him in jail for at least a few more days.
The lawyers for Abrego Garcia in Maryland, where his wife is suing the Trump administration over his deportation in March, have proposed a potential remedy. While he awaits trial in Tennessee, they have requested that the federal judge presiding over the case order the government to transport him to Maryland.
In their letter to U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers stated that the government would probably take him away to a location outside of Maryland if this Court did not take immediate action.
For over ten years, Abrego Garcia and his American wife and kids resided in Maryland, which is located just outside of Washington. His deportation went against a 2019 order by a U.S. immigration judge that prohibited his expulsion to his country of origin. The judge concluded that gangs that had tormented Abrego Garcia and his family were a real threat.
Its breach of the 2019 immigration judge’s decision was characterized by the Trump administration as an administrative blunder. Trump and other officials intensified their accusations that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang, a claim that Garcia refutes.
On June 13, Abrego Garcia entered a not guilty plea to smuggling allegations, which his lawyers have described as an effort to defend his unjustified deportation from a renowned El Salvadorian prison.
Abrego Garcia was driving a car with nine people and no luggage when he was pulled up for speeding in Tennessee in 2022, which led to the accusations.
In his decision on Sunday, Tennessee magistrate judge Holmes stated that federal prosecutors had not proven Abrego Garcia was a flight risk or a community hazard.
Holmes imposed some requirements on Abrego Garcia’s release during a court hearing on Wednesday, one of which was that he live in Maryland with his brother, a U.S. citizen. However, she delayed his release because she was worried that prosecutors wouldn’t be able to stop U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from deporting him.
Holmes questioned whether she had the authority to demand anything more than that prosecutors make every effort to gain ICE’s cooperation.
The judge stated, “I am confident in my ability to lead the local U.S. Attorney’s office.” I don’t believe that I have any control over ICE.
Acting U.S. Attorney Rob McGuire assured the judge that he will make every effort to gain ICE’s cooperation. “That’s a separate agency with separate leadership and separate directions,” the prosecutor pointed out. I’ll organize, but I can’t give them instructions.
