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Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia have asked a federal judge in Tennessee to delay releasing him from jail in order to prevent the Trump administration from trying to swiftly deport the Maryland construction worker.

U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. in Nashville is expected to rule soon on whether to free Abrego Garcia while he awaits trial on human smuggling charges. If the Salvadoran national is released, U.S. officials have said he would be immediately detained by immigration authorities and targeted for deportation.

Abrego Garcia became a prominent face in the debate over President Trump’s immigration policies when he was wrongfully deported to his native El Salvador in March. That expulsion 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 administration claimed that Abrego Garcia was in the MS-13 gang, although he wasn’t charged and has repeatedly denied the allegation. Facing mounting pressure and a U.S. Supreme Court order, the Trump administration returned Abrego Garcia to the U.S. last month to face the smuggling charges, which his attorneys have called “preposterous.”

The smuggling case stems from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding, during Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with nine passengers. Police in Tennessee suspected human smuggling, but he was allowed to drive on.

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.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville ruled a month ago that Abrego Garcia is eligible for release after she determined he’s not a flight risk or a danger. Abrego Garcia’s attorneys asked her to keep him in jail over deportation concerns.

Holmes’ ruling is being reviewed by Crenshaw after federal prosecutors filed a motion to revoke her release order.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys initially argued for his release but changed their strategy because of the government’s plans to deport him if he is set free. With Crenshaw’s decision imminent, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys filed a motion Sunday night for a 30-day stay of any release order. The request would allow Abrego Garcia to “evaluate his options and determine whether additional relief is necessary.”

Earlier this month, U.S. officials detailed their plans to try to expel Abrego Garcia in a federal court in Maryland. That’s where Abrego Garcia’s American wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, is suing the Trump administration 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 immigration judge’s decision in 2019, Abrego Garcia was released under federal supervision, received a federal work permit and checked in with ICE each year, his attorneys have said. But U.S. officials recently stated in court documents that they revoked Abrego Garcia’s supervised release.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys in Maryland have asked U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis to order the federal government to send Abrego Garcia to that state to await his trial, a bid that seeks to prevent deportation.

His lawyers also asked Xinis to issue at least a 72-hour hold that would prevent immediate deportation if he’s released from jail in Tennessee. Xinis has not ruled on either request.

Finley writes for the Associated Press.

Despite being wrongly deported and returned to the US, lawyers say Abrego Garcia again faces expulsion.

Lawyers representing Kilmar Abrego Garcia have asked a judge in Tennessee to delay his release from jail, in a bid to avoid deportation.

The filing on Monday was the latest turn in the case of Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported to his native El Salvador by the administration of President Donald Trump in March, but later returned to the US in June following a Supreme Court order.

Abrego Garcia has been held in jail since his return, as he faces smuggling charges related to a 2022 traffic stop.

His lawyers have dismissed the charges as “preposterous” and an effort by US officials to demonise Abrego Garcia, who has become a cause celebre for opponents of Trump’s mass deportation drive.

At the same time, they believe that if Abrego Garcia is released ahead of his trial, he will be detained by immigration agents and deported, according to the Monday filing.

They requested that any release of Abrego Garcia be delayed by 30 days so he can “evaluate his options and determine whether additional relief is necessary”.

US District Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr is expected to soon rule on whether to free Abrego Garcia, after another judge ruled he could be released as he did not pose a flight risk.

Plan to deport

The Trump administration has long maintained that Abrego Garcia, a resident of Maryland, was a member of an MS-13 gang, a claim his lawyers have said was based on faulty information.

Abrego Garcia has never been convicted of a crime or had the claims adjudicated in court.

He was among those loaded onto a deportation flight to El Salvador under the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act, which the Trump administration has argued allows for the swift deportation of alleged gang members.

Administration officials later admitted that Abrego Garcia had been wrongly deported due to an “administrative error”, as an immigration judge in 2019 had shielded Abrego Garcia from deportation to El Salvador. The judge determined he faces threats of gang violence in his home country.

Still, for several months, the administration refused to return Abrego Garcia, who came to the US in 2011 without documentation.

Trump officials have since said that the immigration judge’s 2019 order only applies to El Salvador, and have maintained that they can legally deport Abrego Garcia to a third country.

Last month, the US Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration could deport individuals to far-flung third countries, including war-torn South Sudan, until a legal challenge to the practice makes its way through the lower courts.

Abrego Garcia’s wife, meanwhile, has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in Maryland. His lawyers have requested that he be transferred to state custody while the criminal and civil cases proceed.

GREENBELT, Md. — The U.S. government would initiate deportation proceedings against Kilmar Abrego Garcia if he’s released from jail before he stands trial on human smuggling charges in Tennessee, a Justice Department attorney told a federal judge in Maryland on Monday.

The disclosure by U.S. lawyer Jonathan Guynn contradicts statements by spokespeople for the Justice Department and the White House, who said last month that Abrego Garcia would stand trial and possibly spend time in an American prison before the government moves to deport him.

Guynn made the revelation during a federal court hearing in Maryland, where Abrego Garcia’s American wife is suing the Trump administration over his mistaken deportation in March and trying to prevent him being expelled again.

Guynn said that U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement would detain Abrego Garcia once he’s released from jail and send him to a “third country” that isn’t his native El Salvador. Guynn said he didn’t know which country that would be.

Abrego Garcia became a flash point over President Trump’s immigration policies when he was deported in March to a notorious megaprison in El Salvador. The Trump administration violated a U.S. immigration judge’s 2019 order that shielded Abrego Garcia from deportation to his native country because he likely faced persecution there by local gangs that terrorized his family.

Facing increasing pressure and a Supreme Court order, the Trump administration returned Abrego Garcia last month to face federal human smuggling charges. Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have characterized the case as “preposterous” and an attempt to justify his erroneous deportation.

A federal judge in Nashville was preparing to release Abrego Garcia to await trial. But she agreed last week to keep Abrego Garcia behind bars at the request of his own attorneys. They had raised concerns that the U.S. would try to immediately deport him, while citing what they say were “contradictory statements” by the Trump administration.

For example, Guynn had told U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland on June 26 that the U.S. government planned to deport Abrego Garcia to a “third country” that isn’t El Salvador. But he said there was no timeline for the deportation plans.

Later that day, Justice Department spokesperson Chad Gilmartin told the Associated Press that the department intends to try Abrego Garcia on the smuggling charges before it moves to deport him.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson posted on X that day that Abrego Garcia “will face the full force of the American justice system — including serving time in American prison for the crimes he’s committed.”

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have asked Xinis to order the government to take Abrego Garcia to Maryland upon release from jail in Tennessee, an arrangement that would prevent his deportation before trial. Abrego Garcia lived in Maryland for more than a decade, working in construction and raising a family with his wife.

Xinis is still considering Abrego Garcia’s lawyers’ request to send him to Maryland if he’s released. Meanwhile, Xinis ruled Monday that the lawsuit against the Trump administration over Abrego Garcia’s mistaken deportation can continue.

Kunzelman and Finley write for the Associated Press. Finley reported from Norfolk, Va.

WASHINGTON — Kilmar Abrego Garcia said he suffered severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation and psychological torture in the notorious El Salvador prison the Trump administration had deported him to in March, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

He said he was kicked and hit so often after arrival that by the following day, he had visible bruises and lumps all over his body. He said he and 20 others were forced to kneel all night long and guards hit anyone who fell.

Abrego Garcia was living in Maryland when he was mistakenly deported and became a flashpoint in President Trump’s immigration crackdown. The new details of Abrego Garcia’s incarceration in El Salvador were added to a lawsuit against the Trump administration that Abrego Garcia’s wife filed in Maryland federal court after he was deported.

The Trump administration has asked a federal judge in Maryland to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that it is now moot because the government returned him to the United States as ordered by the court.

A U.S. immigration judge in 2019 had barred Abrego Garcia from being deported back to his native El Salvador because he likely faced persecution there by local gangs who had terrorized him and his family. The Trump administration deported him there despite the judge’s 2019 order and later described it as an “administrative error.” Trump and other officials have since doubled down on claims Abrego Garcia was in the MS-13 gang.

On March 15, Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador and sent to the country’s mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.

In the new court documents, Abrego Garcia said detainees at CECOT “were confined to metal bunks with no mattresses in an overcrowded cell with no windows, bright lights that remained on 24 hours a day, and minimal access to sanitation.”

He said prison officials told him repeatedly that they would transfer him to cells with people who were gang members who would “tear” him apart. Abrego Garcia said he saw others in nearby cells violently harm each other and heard screams from people throughout the night.

His condition deteriorated and he lost more than 30 pounds in his first two weeks there, he said.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, visited Abrego Garcia in El Salvador in April. The senator said Abrego Garcia reported he’d been moved from the mega-prison to a detention center with better conditions.

The Trump administration continued to face mounting pressure and a Supreme Court order to return him to the United States. When the U.S. government brought back Abrego Garcia last month, it was to face federal human smuggling charges in Tennessee.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the time of Abrego Garcia’s return that this “is what American justice looks like.” But Abrego Garcia’s attorneys called the charges “preposterous” and an attempt to justify his mistaken expulsion.

A federal judge in Tennessee has ruled that Abrego Garcia is eligible for release — under certain conditions — as he awaits trial on the criminal charges in Tennessee. But she has kept him in jail for now at the request of his own attorneys over fears that he would be deported again upon release.

Justice Department spokesman Chad Gilmartin told The Associated Press last month that the department intends to try Abrego Garcia on the smuggling charges before it moves to deport him again.

Separately, Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn told a federal judge in Maryland last month that the U.S. government plans to deport Abrego Garcia to a “third country” that isn’t El Salvador. Guynn said there was no timeline for the deportation plans. But Abrego Garcia’s attorneys cited Guynn’s comments as a reason to fear he would be deported “immediately.”

Baumann and Finley write for the Associated Press.

New court filings detail man’s ordeal after his mistaken deportation became a flashpoint in Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man legally residing in the US state of Maryland, whom the Trump administration mistakenly deported in a high-profile case in March, was severely beaten and subjected to psychological torture in prison there, his lawyers say.

The alleged abuse was detailed in court documents filed in Abrego Garcia’s civil lawsuit against the Trump administration on Wednesday, providing an account of his experiences following his deportation for the first time.

Abrego Garcia’s case has become a flashpoint in the US government’s controversial immigration crackdown since he was mistakenly deported to his native El Salvador in March, despite an earlier order by an immigration judge barring such a move.

According to his lawyers, Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador as a teenager to avoid gang violence, arriving in the United States around 2011. He has lived for more than a decade in Maryland, where he and his American wife are raising three children.

He was returned to the US last month and is currently locked in a legal battle with the US government, which has indicted him on charges of migrant smuggling and says it plans to deport him to a third country.

“Plaintiff Abrego Garcia reports that he was subjected to severe mistreatment upon arrival at CECOT, including but not limited to severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture,” his lawyers said in the filing, referring to the Salvadoran mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Centre, or CECOT.

Severe beatings, threats

The filings, made in a civil suit in federal court against the US government brought by Abrego Garcia’s wife in Maryland, said her husband was hit and kicked so frequently upon his arrival at the prison that the next day his body was covered in lumps and bruises.

The filings also said he and other inmates were forced to kneel for nine hours straight throughout the night, or were hit by guards, in a cruel exercise of sleep deprivation.

It said prison staff repeatedly threatened to transfer Abrego Garcia to cells with gang members who would “tear” him apart, and claimed that he lost 31 pounds (14kg) in his first two weeks in jail as a result of the abuse.

‘Administrative error’

Abrego Garcia was detained by immigration officials and deported to El Salvador on March 15. Trump and US officials have accused him of belonging to the notorious MS-13 gang, which he denies.

The deportation took place despite an order from a US immigration judge in 2019, which barred Abrego Garcia from being sent back to El Salvador because he likely faced persecution there from gangs.

Abrego Garcia’s treatment gained worldwide attention, with critics of Trump’s aggressive immigration policy saying it demonstrated how officials were ignoring due process in their zeal to deport migrants. The Trump administration later described the deportation as an “administrative error”.

Last month, the US government complied with a directive from the court to return Abrego Garcia to the US, but only after having secured an indictment charging him with working with coconspirators as part of a smuggling ring to bring immigrants to the US illegally.

He is currently being detained in Nashville, Tennessee, while his criminal case is pending, having pleaded not guilty to illegally transporting undocumented immigrants.

The US government is arguing that the new civil suit is now moot, as Abrego Garcia has been returned from El Salvador. It has said it plans to deport him to a third country after he is released from custody.

Abrego Garcia a ‘criminal’ for DHS

In the wake of the latest court filings, the Trump administration doubled down on its attacks on Abrego Garcia as a dangerous illegal immigrant.

In a post on the social media platform X, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the “media’s sympathetic narrative about this criminal illegal gang member has completely fallen apart”.

“Once again the media is falling all over themselves to defend Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” it said.

“This illegal alien is an MS-13 gang member, alleged human trafficker, and a domestic abuser,” DHS claimed, without providing any evidence.

July 3 (UPI) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was wrongfully deported in March, alleged in court documents filed Wednesday that he was tortured in an El Salvador prison.

Lawyers for Abrego Garcia filed an amended complaint in his lawsuit against the Trump administration that outlines what happened with him after he was deported to the Central American country on March 15.

Abrego Garcia told his lawyers that he was subjected to severe mistreatment upon arrival at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center mega prison, enduring alleged severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition and psychological torture.

“Welcome to CECOT. Whoever enters here doesn’t leave,” a prison official told the detainees, including Abrego Garcia, who recounted his ordeal to his lawyers.

Abrego Garcia alleged that he was forced to strip and issued prison clothing while authorities kicked him in the legs with boots and hit him on the head and arms to make him change clothes faster. His head was then shaved and he was marched to a cell while he was struck by wooden batons along the way.

“By the following day, plaintiff Abrego Garcia had visible bruises and lumps all over his body,” the lawyers wrote in the court documents.

The detainees were then allegedly forced to kneel for around nine hours overnight as guards beat anyone who fell from exhaustion. “Abrego Garcia was denied bathroom access and soiled himself,” his lawyers wrote.

Later, authorities separated detainees who had visible gang-related tattoos from those who did not. Still, Abrego Garcia was threatened with being sent to the cells where alleged gang members would “tear” him apart.

Abrego Garcia lost 31 pounds in the first two weeks of his detention and he was eventually transferred to another prison in Santa Ana, El Salvador.

The latest court documents also lay into the Trump administration for its actions since Abrego Garcia was wrongfully deported, including defiance of orders by a federal judge to bring him back to the United States until he was abruptly returned in early June.

Abrego Garcia, 29, was returned to last month to face two federal charges in Tennessee related allege migrant smuggling.

He is currently being held in Nashville.

WASHINGTON — Court records show that the Trump administration has agreed to spare from deportation a key witness in the federal prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in exchange for his cooperation in the case.

Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes, 38, has been convicted of smuggling migrants and illegally reentering the United States after having been deported. He also pleaded guilty to “deadly conduct” in connection with a separate incident in which he drunkenly fired a gun in a Texas community.

Records reviewed by the Washington Post show that Hernandez Reyes has been released early from federal prison to a halfway house and has been given permission to stay in the U.S. for at least a year.

Prosecutors have identified Hernandez Reyes as the “first cooperator” in the case against Abrego Garcia, according to court filings. The Department of Homeland Security maintains that Hernandez Reyes owned a sport utility vehicle that Abrego Garcia was allegedly using to smuggle migrants when the Tennessee Highway Patrol stopped him in 2022. That traffic stop is at the center of the criminal investigation against Abrego Garcia.

Hernandez Reyes is among several cooperating witnesses who could help the administration deport Abrego Garcia.

Abrego Garcia, a construction worker who had been living in Maryland, became a prime focus in Trump’s immigration crackdown when he was mistakenly deported to his native El Salvador in March. Facing mounting pressure and a Supreme Court order, the administration returned him this month to face the smuggling charges, which his attorneys have called “preposterous.”

On Friday, attorneys for Abrego Garcia asked a federal judge in Tennessee to delay his release from jail because of “contradictory statements” by the administration over whether he’ll be deported upon release.

A federal judge in Nashville has been preparing to release Abrego Garcia to await trial on human smuggling charges. But she’s been holding off over concerns that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would swiftly detain him and try to deport him again.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys are now asking the judge to continue to detain him after statements by administration officials “because we cannot put any faith in any representation made on this issue by” the Justice Department.

Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty.

NASHVILLE — Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia asked a federal judge in Tennessee on Friday to delay his release from jail because of “contradictory statements” by President Trump’s administration over whether he’ll be deported upon release.

A federal judge in Nashville has been preparing to release Abrego Garcia to await trial on human smuggling charges. But she’s been holding off over concerns that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would swiftly detain him and try to deport him again.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys are now asking the judge to continue to detain him following statements by Trump administration officials “because we cannot put any faith in any representation made on this issue by” the Justice Department.

“The irony of this request is not lost on anyone,” the attorneys wrote.

Abrego Garcia, a construction worker who had been living in Maryland, became a flashpoint over Trump’s hard-line immigration policies when he was mistakenly deported to his native El Salvador in March. Facing mounting pressure and a Supreme Court order, Trump’s Republican administration returned him this month to face the smuggling charges, which his attorneys have called “preposterous.”

In a response to the request by Abrego Garcia’s attorneys on Friday, acting U.S. Atty. Rob McGuire agreed to delaying Abrego Garcia’s release. He reiterated his stance that Abrego Garcia should remain in jail before trial and that he lacks jurisdiction over ICE, stating that he has no way to prevent Abrego Garcia’s deportation.

Justice Department spokesman Chad Gilmartin told the Associated Press on Thursday that the department intends to try Abrego Garcia on the smuggling charges before it moves to deport him, stating that Abrego Garcia “has been charged with horrific crimes, including trafficking children, and will not walk free in our country again.”

Hours earlier, Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn told a federal judge in Maryland that the U.S. government plans to deport Abrego Garcia to a “third country” that isn’t El Salvador. Guynn said there was no timeline for the deportation plans.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys wrote in their filing on Friday that Guynn’s statements were the “first time the government has represented, to anyone, that it intended not to deport Mr. Abrego back to El Salvador following a trial on these charges, but to deport him to a third country immediately.”

The filing by Abrego Garcia’s lawyers also cited a post on X on Thursday from White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson: “Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States to face trial for the egregious charges against him,” Jackson stated. “He will face the full force of the American justice system — including serving time in American prison for the crimes he’s committed.”

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys wrote Friday the Trump administration brought Abrego Garcia back “only to convict him in the court of public opinion.”

“In a just world, he would not seek to prolong his detention further,” his attorneys wrote. “And yet the government — a government that has, at all levels, told the American people that it is bringing Mr. Abrego back home to the United States to face ‘American justice’ — apparently has little interest in actually bringing this case to trial.”

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have asked the judge to delay his release until a July 16 court hearing, which will consider a request by prosecutors to revoke Abrego Garcia’s release order while he awaits trial.

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.

When the Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia in March, it violated a U.S. immigration judge’s order in 2019 that barred his expulsion to his native country. The immigration judge had found that Abrego Garcia faced a credible threat from gangs that had terrorized him and his family.

The human smuggling charges pending against Abrego Garcia stem from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding in Tennessee, during which Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with nine passengers without luggage.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville 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.

Finley and Loller write for the Associated Press. Finley reported from Norfolk, Va.

Lawyers for the Salvadoran immigrant asked he be returned to Maryland to prevent his quick deportation from Tennessee.

Federal prosecutors have told a judge in Maryland that the United States government plans to initiate a new round of removal proceedings against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man whose mistaken deportation in March drew outcry.

On Thursday, Department of Justice lawyer, Jonathan Guynn, said the removal proceedings would be to a “third country”, not El Salvador, where Abrego Garcia was previously deported.

But the prosecutor also said the government’s plans are not “imminent”. Guynn added that the US government would comply with all court orders.

The government’s plan came to light as part of an emergency request presented to US District Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Abrego Garcia is currently being held in Tennessee, where he faces criminal charges. But judges in Tennessee have indicated they plan to release Abrego Garcia – leaving him vulnerable to re-arrest by immigration agents.

His lawyers petitioned Judge Xinis to order the government to take Abrego Garcia to Maryland when he is released in Tennessee, to prevent his deportation before he stands trial.

“We have concerns that the government may try to remove Mr Abrego Garcia quickly over the weekend,” Jonathan Cooper, one of Abrego Garcia’s lawyers, said.

Judge Xinis, however, said she could not move as quickly as Abrego Garcia’s lawyers requested.

Abrego Garcia is one of the most prominent immigrants swept up in President Donald Trump’s recent push for “mass deportation”.

Though he was subject to a 2019 protection order allowing him to remain in the country, Abrego Garcia was arrested and deported around March 15, setting off a high-profile legal battle for his return.

Initially, he was held with hundreds of other deported men in El Salvador’s Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT, a maximum-security prison accused of housing abusive conditions. But by April, amid intense media scrutiny, it was revealed he had been transferred to another facility in the city of Santa Ana.

Prior to his removal, Abrego Garcia had not been charged with a crime. But when the US government announced his abrupt return on June 6, it revealed that it had sought an indictment against Abrego Garcia on human smuggling charges.

That case is ongoing in Tennessee. Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers there have argued that the charges are an attempt by the Trump administration to save face.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, has accused Abrego Garcia of being a member of the MS-13 gang and a danger to society. It has relied on a 2022 video of a traffic stop involving Abrego Garcia as evidence: He is seen driving a large vehicle with nine passengers, while a police officer speculates why they do not have luggage.

Officials have previously described Abrego Garcia’s initial March deportation as an “administrative error”.

Separately from the Tennessee case, Judge Xinis has weighed whether the March deportation was unlawful – and whether the Trump administration’s actions constitute contempt of court.

In April, Xinis, and later the US Supreme Court, ruled that the US government had an obligation to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return from El Salvador after his mistaken deportation.

But lawyers for Abrego Garcia have argued that the US government delayed and failed to provide court-mandated information about his return. All the while, they say, the Trump administration was preparing criminal charges against their client.

On Thursday, Judge Xinis said she had to consider the Trump administration’s pending motions to dismiss the case before she could rule on the emergency request to bring Abrego Garcia to Maryland.

She scheduled a July 7 court hearing in Maryland to discuss the emergency request and other matters.

Abrego Garcia currently remains in temporary custody in Tennessee to prevent a second deportation.

President Trump’s administration plans to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a country that’s not his native El Salvador after he’s released from jail in Tennessee, a federal prosecutor told a federal judge in Maryland on Thursday.

Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn said the removal proceedings would be to a “third country.” But the prosecutor also said there are “no imminent plans” to deport Abrego Garcia and the U.S. government would comply with all court orders.

Guynn acknowledged the government’s plans during a hastily planned conference call with Abrego Garcia’s attorneys and U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Md. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers had filed an emergency request for Xinis to order the government to take Abrego Garcia to Maryland when he is released in Tennessee, an arrangement that would prevent his deportation before he stands trial.

“We have concerns that the government may try to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia quickly over the weekend, something like that,” one of his attorneys, Jonathan Cooper, told Xinis on the call.

Prosecutor says ‘there’s no timeline’

Xinis, however, said 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.

It was unclear whether the government would seek to deport Abrego Garcia before he stands trial in the U.S. on criminal charges unsealed earlier this month.

Guynn told the judge during Thursday’s call that “there’s no timeline.”

“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.”

Deporting Abrego Garcia before his trial would be a reversal for an administration that brought him back from El Salvador just weeks ago to face human smuggling charges, with Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi saying: “This is what American justice looks like.”

Abrego Garcia, a Maryland construction worker, became a flash point over Trump’s immigration policies after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March. He’s been in jail in Tennessee since he was returned to the U.S. on June 7 to face human smuggling charges.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville has ruled that Abrego Garcia has a right to be released while awaiting trial. 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 try to deport him again.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys in Maryland, where his wife is suing the Trump administration over his March deportation, offered up a solution when they asked Xinis to direct the government to take him to Maryland while he awaits trial. Xinis has been overseeing the lawsuit in her Greenbelt court.

“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 in their request to Xinis.

Abrego Garcia lived in Maryland, just outside Washington, with his American wife and children for more than a decade. His deportation 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 on Sunday that federal prosecutors failed to show that Abrego Garcia was a flight risk or a danger to the community.

During a court hearing on 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 on Thursday and Friday respectively.

U.S. has to pull diplomatic levers

César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, an Ohio State University law professor, said the Trump administration would be “fully within its legal power to attempt to remove him to some other country.”

“The Trump administration would have to pull its diplomatic levers,” the professor added. “It’s unusual. But it’s not unheard of.”

Abrego Garcia also could contest the criminal allegations and attempts to remove him in immigration court while demonstrating his ties to the U.S., García Hernández said.

Whatever decision an immigration judge would make, it can be appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals, García Hernández said. And the board’s ruling can then be contested in a federal appeals court.

Finley writes for the Associated Press.

A Salvadoran national whose mistaken deportation spurred national outcry in the United States will remain in jail for now, as lawyers discuss how to prevent him from being removed from the country a second time.

On Wednesday, Kilmar Abrego Garcia was set to be released from pre-trial custody without having to post bail. He is being held in detention in Nashville, Tennessee, on criminal charges of human smuggling.

The administration of President Donald Trump had sought to stop his release, deeming him to be a flight risk.

But US District Judge Waverly Crenshaw upheld a magistrate judge’s earlier decision finding that Abrego Garcia was eligible to walk free.

However, in an unexpected twist, lawyers on both sides argued that, if Abrego Garcia were released, he risks being taken into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for a second deportation.

That would deprive Abrego Garcia of the chance to defend himself against the charges, which he has denied. And lawyers for the government argued that it would also scuttle their criminal case against him.

Judge Crenshaw noted in a written decision that, since it is the government’s choice whether or not to deport Abrego Garcia, the situation appeared to be a case of the executive branch doing “injury on itself”.

“If deported, the Government argues, the Department of Justice will be deprived of the opportunity to pursue its criminal charges against Abrego,” Crenshaw wrote.

But, he added, “it is the Executive Branch’s decision that places the Government in this predicament.”

Ultimately, it was decided that Abrego Garcia would remain in custody while lawyers sparred over whether they could prevent Abrego Garcia’s deportation if he were released to await trial.

A high-profile case

Abrego Garcia appeared at the Wednesday hearing wearing an orange jail-issued T-shirt and a headset to listen to the proceedings through a Spanish interpreter.

It was the latest chapter in an ongoing fight between Abrego Garcia and the Trump administration over whether he would be allowed to stay in the US.

According to his lawyers, Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador as a teenager to avoid gang violence, arriving in the US around 2011. He has lived for more than a decade in Maryland, where he and his American wife are raising three children.

In 2019, a judge granted him a protection order that barred his removal from the US.

But on March 15, Abrego Garcia was swept up in the immigration raids being conducted as part of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

He and more than 200 other Venezuelans and Salvadorans were accused of being gang members, and they were deported to El Salvador.

Many of the men were sent to the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT, a maximum-security prison for those accused of terrorism. But advocates for the deported immigrants have argued that many of their clients had no criminal records and were in the process of seeking legal immigration status in the US.

Advocates have also pointed out that ICE has provided scant evidence against some of the deported individuals, in some cases appearing to arrest people based solely on their tattoos.

The Trump administration, however, has designated Latin American gangs like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua as “foreign terrorist organisations” and sought to crack down on their presence in the US.

A number of legal challenges followed the deportation flights to El Salvador. In Abrego Garcia’s case, the government acknowledged that his removal had been the result of an “administrative error”.

But the Trump administration initially insisted he could not be brought back to the US even after the Supreme Court in April ordered the government to “facilitate” his return.

A return to the US

That changed on June 7, when Abrego Garcia was returned to the US. The Trump administration justified the return as necessary to confront him with charges of smuggling undocumented migrants inside the US.

Those charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding in Tennessee. In a video recording of the stop, one of the police officers observed that Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with nine passengers and speculated he might be a smuggler. But no criminal charges were brought at the time.

In announcing Abrego Garcia’s return to the US this month, the Trump administration revealed it had sought a criminal indictment in May of this year.

At the recent detention hearings, Homeland Security special agent Peter Joseph testified that he did not begin investigating Abrego Garcia until April.

Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty to the smuggling charges on June 13, and his lawyers have characterised them as an attempt to justify his mistaken deportation.

On Sunday, US Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes ruled that Abrego Garcia does not have to remain in jail before his criminal trial.

But she described that decision as “little more than an academic exercise”, given that it was likely Abrego Garcia would be taken back into custody by ICE if released.

How to prevent Abrego Garcia from being deported a second time became the focus of Wednesday’s hearing.

A lawyer for Abrego Garcia, Sean Hecker, noted that witnesses cooperating with the Trump administration had been protected from possible deportation.

“The government has ensured witness cooperation by ensuring that people will not be deported,” Hecker said.

If the government could protect those witnesses from removal, Hecker asked why it could not do the same for Abrego Garcia.

Representing the government’s case, meanwhile, was acting US Attorney Rob McGuire. He argued that the executive branch of the government was vast, and he had little control over every entity’s actions.

Still, he added, he would ask the Department of Homeland Security for its cooperation in not deporting Abrego Garcia.

“That’s a separate agency with separate leadership and separate directions,” McGuire said. “I will coordinate, but I can’t tell them what to do.”

Speaking at a news conference before the court hearing, Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, noted that it had been 106 days since her husband had been “abducted” by the government. She called for his safe return.

“Kilmar should never have been taken away from us,” she said. “This fight has been the hardest thing in my life.”

NASHVILLE — 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 lawyers have the ability to prevent Abrego Garcia’s deportation if he is released to await trial.

The Salvadoran national whose mistaken deportation became a tinderbox in the fight over President 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.

Although a federal judge has ruled that he has a right to be released and even set specific conditions for his release, his attorneys expressed concern that it would lead to immediate detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and deportation.

On Sunday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes ruled that Abrego Garcia does not have to remain in jail before that trial. On Wednesday afternoon, she will set his conditions of his release and allow him to go, according to her order. However, his defense attorneys and prosecutors have said they expect him to be taken into custody by ICE as soon as he is released on the criminal charges.

Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, said during a news conference before Wednesday’s scheduled court 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.”

Federal prosecutors are appealing Holmes’ release order. Among other things, they expressed concern in a motion filed Sunday that Abrego Garcia could be deported before he faces trial. Holmes has said that she won’t step between the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security — it is up to them to decide whether they want to deport Abrego Garcia or prosecute him.

Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty 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 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 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.

Loller writes for the Associated Press.

NASHVILLE — A federal judge in Tennessee on Sunday denied the U.S. government’s motion to keep Kilmar Abrego Garcia in detention before his trial on human smuggling charges and ordered his release.

But Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation to El Salvador has become a high-profile case in President Trump’s immigration crackdown, is not expected to go free because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will probably take him into custody and possibly try to deport him.

In denying the Trump administration’s motion Sunday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes scheduled a hearing for Wednesday to discuss the conditions of his release.

The U.S. government has already filed a motion to appeal the judge’s decision and is asking her to stay her impending release order.

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. That hearing was the first chance the Maryland construction worker had in a U.S. courtroom to answer the Trump administration’s allegations.

The smuggling charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding in Tennessee during which Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with nine passengers. Although officers suspected possible smuggling, he was allowed to go with only a warning.

A federal indictment accuses Abrego Garcia of smuggling throughout the U.S. hundreds of people living in the country illegally, including children and members of the violent MS-13 gang. He has denied the charges.

The investigation was launched weeks after the Supreme Court ordered the administration to facilitate his return from El Salvador amid mounting public pressure.

Holmes acknowledged in her ruling Sunday that determining whether Abrego Garcia should be released is “little more than an academic exercise” because ICE will probably detain him. But the judge wrote that the government failed to prove that Abrego Garcia was a flight risk, that he posed a danger to the community or that he would interfere with proceedings if released.

“Overall, the Court cannot find from the evidence presented that Abrego’s release clearly and convincingly poses an irremediable danger to other persons or to the community,” the judge wrote.

The acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, Rob McGuire, argued on June 13 that the likely attempt by ICE to deport him was one reason to keep him in jail.

The judge suggested then that the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security could work out between themselves whether the government’s priority is to try him on the criminal charges or deport him. No date has been set for the trial.

A 2019 immigration judge’s order prevents Abrego Garcia from being deported to his native El Salvador because he faces a credible threat from gangs there, according to Will Allensworth, an assistant federal public defender representing him.

The government could deport him to a third country, but immigration officials would first be required to show that that country was willing to keep him and not deport him back to El Salvador, Allensworth said.

At the detention hearing, McGuire said cooperating witnesses have accused Abrego Garcia of trafficking drugs and firearms and of abusing the women he transported, among other claims. Abrego Garcia also denies those accusations, and although he is not charged with such crimes, McGuire said they showed him to be a dangerous person who should remain in jail pretrial.

Most people in ICE custody who are facing criminal charges are not kept in the U.S. for trial but deported, according to Ohio State University law professor César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández. The government would not need a conviction to deport Abrego Garcia because he came to the U.S. illegally.

However an immigration judge rules, the decision can be appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals, García Hernández said. And the board’s ruling can then be contested in a federal appeals court.

Loller and Finley write for the Associated Press and reported from Nashville and Norfolk, Va., respectively.

June 13 (UPI) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Friday formally pleaded not-guilty to federal human trafficking and conspiracy charges.

Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, also said a court appearance this week was the first time she was able to see her husband since he was arrested and detained in March.

The Salvadorian migrant was returned to the United States earlier this month after being deported to a prison in El Salvador.

“Even though it was through a video screen, I was finally able to see Kilmar,” Vasquez Sura, who is a U.S. citizen, told supporters at a rally in Nashville.

“I’m grateful for everyone who has been fighting for this milestone, in this fight to bring my husband back home with our children.”

The couple were living in Maryland with their young children at the time Abrego Garcia was arrested.

Lawyers will now argue in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes whether the 29-year-old should be granted bail before trial.

Prosecutors have argued he “would have enormous reason to flee” if released.

Abrego Garcia was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in March and eventually deported to El Salvador.

Supporters argued Abrego Garcia was denied due process in the deportation proceedings

A U.S. District Court judge later ordered the federal government to “facilitate” his return, after the Justice Department later acknowledged Abrego Garcia’s deportation was made in error.

President Donald Trump‘s administration pushed back against efforts to bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States.

In 2019, a federal judge ruled in 2019 that Abrego Garcia could be deported, but not back to his home country of El Salvador.

He was indicted on two federal charges last month before his return to the United States. Abrego Garcia is accused of playing a “significant role in an alien smuggling ring,” dating back as far as 2016, Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the time of the indictment.

Bondi said if Abrego Garcia is found guilty, he will be returned to El Salvador.

Police stopped the vehicle he was driving in Tennessee in 2002 and found several Hispanic men with no identification.

After he was returned to the United States, Abrego Garcia was immediately sent to Tennessee to face the federal charges.

Federal officials also contend Abrego Garcia was a member of the El Salvadoran MS-13 gang, accusations he and his family deny. They argue Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador because of the threat of gang violence.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man who was wrongfully deported from the United States, has pleaded not guilty to human smuggling charges in a federal court in Nashville, Tennessee.

Friday marked the first opportunity for Abrego Garcia, a Maryland construction worker, to confront the criminal charges the administration of President Donald Trump has levelled against him.

The Trump administration has sought to portray Abrego Garcia as a member of the MS-13 criminal gang following his deportation to El Salvador on March 15.

Abrego Garcia had been protected from deportation under a 2019 protection order, given his fear of gang violence if he returned to El Salvador. His removal to that country sparked public outrage and questions about the legality of Trump’s “mass deportation” campaign.

In the months since, the Trump administration has faced increasing pressure to return Abrego Garcia to the US, with the Supreme Court in April affirming that the government needed to “facilitate” his release.

A lower court, led by US District Judge Paula Xinis, had signalled that it was considering whether to hold the Trump administration in contempt of court for not complying with orders to secure his return.

That abruptly changed, however, on June 6, when Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Abrego Garcia was on his way back to the US to face charges that he helped smuggle undocumented migrants in the US.

In a 10-page indictment, the Trump administration accused Abrego Garcia of leading “more than 100 trips between Texas to Maryland and other states”, starting in 2016.

It cites as evidence a traffic stop in Tennessee around November 30, 2022, when Abrego Garcia was observed driving a Chevrolet Suburban with nine passengers, all of whom appeared to be undocumented men headed to Maryland.

The administration has released body camera footage of that incident, where a police officer can be heard speculating that Abrego Garcia is part of a smuggling ring. But the footage shows no confrontation, and Abrego Garcia was not charged with any offence following the traffic stop.

Prosecutors have noted that Abrego Garcia could face a maximum of 10 years in prison for each migrant he smuggled, if convicted.

Critics, however, question whether the recently unveiled criminal indictment was an attempt by the Trump administration to save face and dodge contempt charges, given the scrutiny over whether it was defying court orders.

Abrego Garcia’s defence team, meanwhile, has called the charges against him “preposterous”.

“There’s no way a jury is going to see the evidence and agree that this sheet-metal worker is the leader of an international MS-13 smuggling conspiracy,” one of his lawyers, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, told The Associated Press.

His case has nevertheless gained a national profile, with the Trump administration facing multiple legal challenges over whether it violated migrants’ right to due process: the right to a fair legal hearing.

Even administration officials have acknowledged that his swift deportation had been the result of an “administrative error”.

In Friday’s court hearing, US Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes spoke directly to Abrego Garcia, assuring him that he would receive a fair trial.

“You are presumed innocent, and it is the government’s burden to prove at trial that you are guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” Holmes said, reiterating fundamental principles of the US justice system.

The Trump administration has sought to keep Abrego Garcia detained while the trial unfolds, using additional allegations that are not included in the indictment as justification. Prosecutors have accused Abrego Garcia, among other things, of child pornography, abusing women and taking part in a murder in El Salvador. They also argue he is a flight risk.

But Judge Holmes warned on Friday that the court cannot keep someone in detention simply on the basis of allegations.

The human smuggling charges against Abrego Garcia have already caused discord within the Justice Department, with one prosecutor appearing to step down in protest.

That prosecutor, Ben Schrader, was the chief of the criminal division at the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee.

He posted on social media on the day of the indictment that he was leaving. “It has been an incredible privilege to serve as a prosecutor with the Department of Justice, where the only job description I’ve ever known is to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons,” he wrote.

Outside the court on Friday, Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, called on supporters to keep fighting for his freedom: “Kilmar wants you to have faith.”

She saw her husband for the first time in three months on Thursday.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation has become a flashpoint in President Trump’s immigration crackdown, pleaded not guilty on Friday to human smuggling charges in a federal court in Tennessee.

The plea was the first chance the Maryland construction worker has had in a U.S. courtroom to answer the Trump administration’s allegations against him since he was mistakenly deported in March to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

The Republican administration returned Abrego Garcia to the U.S. last week to face criminal charges related to what it said was a human smuggling operation that transported immigrants across the country. The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee during which Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with nine passengers. His lawyers have called the allegations “preposterous.”

Friday’s hearing will also focus on whether Abrego Garcia should be released from jail while awaiting trial on the smuggling charges. A federal judge will hear arguments from Abrego Garcia’s lawyers and attorneys for the U.S. government.

Before the hearing began in Nashville, Abrego Garcia’s wife told a crowd outside a church that Thursday marked three months since the Trump administration “abducted and disappeared my husband and separated him from our family.”

Her voice choked with emotion, Jennifer Vasquez Sura said she saw her husband for the first time on Thursday. She said, “Kilmar wants you to have faith,” and asked the people supporting him and his family “‘to continue fighting, and I will be victorious because God is with us.’”

Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador who had been living in the United States for more than a decade before he was wrongfully deported by the Trump administration. The expulsion violated a 2019 U.S. immigration judge’s order that shielded him from deportation to his native country because he likely faced gang persecution there.

While the Trump administration described the mistaken removal as “an administrative error,” officials have continued to justify it by insisting Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang. His wife and attorneys have denied the allegations, saying he’s simply a construction worker and family man.

U.S. attorneys have asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes to keep Abrego Garcia in jail, describing him as a danger to the community and a flight risk. Abrego Garcia’s attorneys disagree, pointing out he was already wrongly detained in a notorious Salvadoran prison thanks to government error and arguing due process and “basic fairness” require him to be set free.

The charges against Abrego Garcia are human smuggling. But in their request to keep Abrego Garcia in jail, U.S. attorneys also accuse him of trafficking drugs and firearms and of abusing the women he transported, among other claims, although he is not charged with such crimes.

The U.S. attorneys also accuse Abrego Garcia of taking part in a murder in El Salvador. However, none of those allegations is part of the charges against him, and at his initial appearance June 6, the judge warned prosecutors she cannot detain someone based solely on allegations.

One of Abrego Garcia’s attorneys last week characterized the claims as a desperate attempt by the Trump administration to justify the mistaken deportation three months after the fact.

“There’s no way a jury is going to see the evidence and agree that this sheet metal worker is the leader of an international MS-13 smuggling conspiracy,” private attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said.

In a Wednesday court filing, Abrego Garcia’s public defenders argued the government is not even entitled to a detention hearing — much less detention — because the charges against him aren’t serious enough.

Although the maximum sentence for smuggling one person is 10 years, and Abrego Garcia is accused of transporting hundreds of people over nearly a decade, his defense attorneys point out there’s no minimum sentence. The average sentence for human smuggling in 2024 was just 15 months, according to court filings.

The decision to charge Abrego Garcia criminally prompted the resignation of Ben Schrader, who was chief of the criminal division at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee. He posted about his departure on social media on the day of the indictment, writing, “It has been an incredible privilege to serve as a prosecutor with the Department of Justice, where the only job description I’ve ever known is to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons.”

He did not directly address the indictment and declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press. However, a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter confirmed the connection.

Although Abrego Garcia lives in Maryland, he’s being charged in Tennessee based on a May 2022 traffic stop for speeding in the state. The Tennessee Highway Patrol body camera video of the encounter that was released to the public last month shows a calm exchange between officers and Abrego Garcia. It also shows the officers discussing among themselves their suspicions of human smuggling before sending him on his way. One of the officers says, “He’s hauling these people for money.” Another says Abrego Garcia had $1,400 in an envelope.

Abrego Garcia was not charged with any offense at the traffic stop. Sandoval-Moshenberg, the private attorney, said in a statement after the video’s release that he saw no evidence of a crime in the footage.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit over Abrego Garcia’s mistaken deportation isn’t over. Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have asked a federal judge in Maryland to impose fines against the Trump administration for contempt, arguing that it flagrantly ignored court orders forseveral weeks to return him. The Trump administration said it will ask the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that it followed the judge’s order to return him to the U.S.

Loller, Mattise and Finley write for the Associated Press. Finley reported from Norfolk, Va.

June 6 (UPI) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, is back in the United States after being indicted in Tennessee on two federal charges involving migrant smuggling, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday.

Bondi said Abrego Garcia, 29, is in the United States to “face justice.”

He made his first court appearance Friday afternoon in Nashville. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes set his arraignment for Wednesday and a hearing on whether he should be detained before the trial.

The Justice Department said in a court filing that he should be held in pretrial custody because “he poses a danger to the community and a serious risk of flight, and no condition or combination of conditions would ensure the safety of the community or his appearance in court.”

On May 21, a grand jury in the Middle District of Tennessee returned an indictment, charging Abrego Garcia with criminal counts of alien smuggling and conspiracy to commit alien smuggling, Bondi said at a news conference.

Abrego Garcia is the only member of the alleged conspiracy indicted.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele was presented with an arrest warrant for him and he agreed to return him to the United States, Bondi said.

“We’re grateful to President Bukele for agreeing to return him to our country to face these very serious charges,” Bondi said.

Bondi said that if Abrego Garcia is convicted of the charges and serves his sentence, he will be deported back to his home country of El Salvador.

“The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring,” Bondi said. “They found this was his full-time job, not a contractor. He was a smuggler of humans and children and women. He made over 100 trips, the grand jury found, smuggling people throughout our country.”

President Donald Trump later told reporters that “I don’t want to say that” it was his call to bring him back to the United States.

“He should have never had to be returned. Take a look at what’s happened with it. Take a look at what they found in the grand jury,” the president told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to New Jersey. “I thought Pam Bondi did a great job.”

Ben Schrader, the chief of the criminal division in the office for the Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville, resigned the same week of the grand jury indictment last month, CNN reported. Schrader’s post on LinkedIn does not mention the Abrego Garcia case.

On April 17, Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen met with his constituent in El Salvador.

“After months of ignoring our Constitution, it seems the Trump Admin has relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and due process for Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” Van Hollen posted on X Friday. “This has never been about the man — it’s about his constitutional rights & the rights of all.”

In the indictment unsealed Friday afternoon, Abrego Garcia and others are accused of participating in a conspiracy in which they “knowingly and unlawfully transported thousands of undocumented aliens who had no authorization to be present in the United States, and many of whom were MS-13 members and associates.”

The allegations from 2016 to this year involve a half-dozen alleged unnamed co-conspirators. Abrego Garcia and others worked to move undocumented aliens between Texas and Maryland and other states more than 100 times, according to the indictment.

They “ordinarily picked up the undocumented aliens in the Houston, Texas area after the aliens had unlawfully crossed the Southern border of the United States from Mexico,” the indictment said.

Abrego Garcia and someone referred to a CC-1 “then transported the undocumented aliens from Texas to other parts of the United States to further the aliens’ unlawful presence in the United States.”

To cover up the alleged conspiracy, prosecutors say Abrego Garcia and his co-conspirators “routinely devised and employed knowingly false cover stories to provide to law enforcement if they were stopped during a transport,” including claims that migrants being transported were headed to construction jobs.

In November 2022, Abrego Garcia is accused of driving a Chevrolet Suburban and was pulled over on a Tennessee interstate highway, with nine other Hispanic men without identification or luggage.

Prosecutors allege that Abrego Garcia transported narcotics to Maryland, though he wasn’t previously charged with any crimes.

“For the last 2 months, the media and Democrats have burnt to the ground any last shred of credibility they had left as they glorified Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a known MS13 gang member, human trafficker, and serial domestic abuser,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement on X. “Justice awaits this Salvadoran man.”

Abrego Garcia and his family have denied allegations that he’s an MS-13 member, and he fled gang violence in El Salvador.

Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, an attorney for Abrego Garcia, said his client should appear in immigration court, not criminal court.

“The government disappeared Kilmar to a foreign prison in violation of a court order,” Sandoval-Moshenberg Now told CNN. “Now, after months of delay and secrecy, they’re bringing him back, not to correct their error but to prosecute him. This shows that they were playing games with the court all along. Due process means the chance to defend yourself before you’re punished, not after. This is an abuse of power, not justice.”

Abrego Garcia deported in March

Abrego Garcia was living in Maryland since he arrived in the United States in 2011 unlawfully.

The government earlier, through a confidential informant, said his clothes had alleged gang markings when he was arrested in 2019.

Abrego Garcia was living with his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, and children when he was arrested in March and deported to El Salvador to the maximum-security Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT. He was with a group of more than 230 men, mostly Venezuelans, accused of being gang members.

In April, the State Department said Abrego Garcia was moved to a lower-security facility in Santa Ana.

The Trump administration has acknowledged that Abrego Garcia’s deportation was a mistake because he had been granted a legal status in 2019. The Department of Homeland Security is banned from removing him to his home country of El Salvador because he was likely to face persecution by local gangs. He didn’t have a hearing before his deportation.

The government has utilized the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime immigration law, to quickly deport migrants from the United States.

In an April hearing, District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland ordered the Trump administration to comply with expedited discovery to determine whether they were complying with the directive to return Abrego Garcia to the United States, which was upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this year. The high court and district judge said the Trump administration must “facilitate” his return for due process.

On Wednesday, Xinis ordered seven documents to be unsealed in the deportation.

Trump criticized judges for interfering in cases.

“Frankly, we have to do something, because the judges are trying to take the place of a president that won in a landslide,” Trump said Friday night. “And that’s not supposed to be the way it is. So I could see bringing him back … he’s a bad guy.”

The criminal charges could impact his immigration case, John Sandweg, a former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told CNN.

“I think what we’re going to see is on the back end of this criminal prosecution — now that they’re prosecuting him for these immigration-related offenses — if they get a conviction, they will go back to the immigration court and argue that now there are those changed circumstances,” said Sandweg, who is now a partner at law firm Nixon Peabody.

After his mistaken deportation to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia faces US charges of transporting undocumented migrants.

A man the Donald Trump administration mistakenly deported to El Salvador has been brought back to the United States, where authorities say he will face criminal charges.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, a Salvadoran immigrant who had lived nearly half his life in Maryland before he was deported in March, faces charges of transporting undocumented migrants inside the US, according to recently unsealed court records.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Friday that Abrego Garcia was returned to the US to “face justice”.

The indictment against him was filed on May 21, more than two months after he was deported in spite of a court order barring his removal.

The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, which suspected Abrego Garcia of human trafficking but ultimately issued only a warning for an expired driver’s license, according to a Department of Homeland Security report.

Bondi, speaking at a news conference, said a grand jury had “found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring”.

She said Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele agreed to return Abrego Garcia to the US after American officials presented his government with an arrest warrant.

Abrego Garcia had been sent to El Salvador as part of a Trump scheme to move undocumented migrants it accuses of being gang members, to prison in the Central American country without due process.

Bukele said in a social media post that his government works with the Trump administration and “of course” would not refuse a request to return “a gang member” to the US.

Deportation ‘a separate legal matter’

Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, DC, said Abrego Garcia could face up to 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

But “that does not deal with the ongoing matter of whether or not he should be deported”, she added. “That’s a separate legal matter.”

Abrego Garcia will have the chance to enter a plea in court and contest the charges at trial. If he is convicted, he would be deported to El Salvador after serving his sentence, Bondi said.

In a statement, Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, Andrew Rossman, said it would now be up to the US judicial system to ensure he received due process.

“Today’s action proves what we’ve known all along – that the administration had the ability to bring him back and just refused to do so,” said Rossman, a partner at law firm Quinn Emanuel.

Abrego Garcia’s deportation defied an immigration judge’s 2019 order granting him protection from being sent back to El Salvador, where it found he was likely to be persecuted by gangs if returned, court records show.

Trump critics pointed to the erroneous deportation as an example of the excesses of the Republican president’s aggressive approach to stepping up deportations.

Officials countered by alleging that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang. His lawyers have denied that he was a gang member and said he had not been convicted of any crime.

Abrego Garcia’s case has become a flash point for escalating tensions between the executive branch and the judiciary, which has ruled against a number of Trump’s policies.

The US Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, with liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor saying the government had cited no basis for what she called his “warrantless arrest”.

US District Judge Paula Xinis also opened a probe into what, if anything, the Trump administration did to secure his return, after his lawyers accused officials of stonewalling their requests for information.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man mistakenly deported from the US to El Salvador, has been returned to the US, where he will face charges including “alien smuggling.” US Attorney General Pam Bondi says the charges were returned by a Tennessee grand jury last month.

WASHINGTON — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation to El Salvador became a political flashpoint in the Trump administration’s stepped-up immigration enforcement, was being returned to the United States to face criminal charges related to what the Trump administration said was a massive human smuggling operation that brought immigrants into the country illegally.

He is expected to be prosecuted in the U.S. and, if convicted, will be returned to his home country in El Salvador at the conclusion of the case, officials said Friday.

“This is what American justice looks like,” Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said Friday in announcing the return of Abrego Garcia and the criminal charges.

The charges stem from a 2022 vehicle stop in which the Tennessee Highway Patrol suspected him of human trafficking. A report released by the Department of Homeland Security in April states that none of the people in the vehicle had luggage, while they listed the same address as Abrego Garcia.

Abrego Garcia was never charged with a crime, and the officers allowed him to drive on with only a warning about an expired driver’s license, according to the Homeland Security report. The report said he was traveling from Texas to Maryland, via Missouri, to bring in people to perform construction work.

In response to the report’s release in April, Abrego Garcia’s wife said in a statement that he sometimes transported groups of workers between job sites, “so it’s entirely plausible he would have been pulled over while driving with others in the vehicle. He was not charged with any crime or cited for any wrongdoing.”

The Trump administration has been publicizing Abrego Garcia’s interactions with police over the years, despite a lack of corresponding criminal charges, while it faces a federal court order and calls from some in Congress to return him to the U.S.

Authorities in Tennessee released video of a 2022 traffic stop last month. The body-camera footage shows a calm and friendly exchange with Tennessee Highway Patrol officers.

Officers then discussed among themselves their suspicions of human trafficking because nine people were traveling without luggage. One of the officers said, “He’s hauling these people for money.” Another said he had $1,400 in an envelope.

An attorney for Abrego Garcia, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said in a statement after the footage’s release in May that he saw no evidence of a crime in the released footage.

“But the point is not the traffic stop — it’s that Mr. Abrego Garcia deserves his day in court,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said.

The move comes days after the Trump administration complied with a court order to return a Guatemalan man deported to Mexico despite his fears of being harmed there. The man, identified in court papers as O.C.G, was the first person known to have been returned to U.S. custody after deportation since the start of President Trump’s second term.