A federal judge on Friday granted a request by Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s attorneys to keep him in jail until his next hearing, a maneuver intended to prevent his deportation from the U.S.
Abrego Garcia, an illegal migrant currently detained in Tennessee on human smuggling charges, requested U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes to delay his release from criminal custody until a July hearing, arguing that the Trump administration intended to detain him the moment he was released and swiftly deport him to a third country. Despite aggressively pushing back on some of the claims made by Abrego Garcia’s attorneys in their motion, the judge ultimately granted their request.
“The United States submits that it does not oppose a delay in the issuance of the Court’s forthcoming release order,” Holmes wrote in a response, according to court documents.
Abrego Garcia’s counsel acknowledged the “irony” of their request earlier Friday, noting that he had spent the last two weeks contesting his detention in Tennessee, and federal prosecutors had previously requested he remain detained before his trial. The Salvadoran man was originally expected to be released Wednesday, where federal immigration agents intended to assume custody.
The decision by Holmes delays further action until his next court hearing on July 16, according to court documents.
Abrego Garcia, accused of being an MS-13 gang member by the Trump administration, is currently being jailed in Tennessee on charges that he participated in a years-long conspiracy to smuggle illegal migrants across the country. Federal prosecutors allege he conducted more than 100 trips over the course of roughly a decade, typically driving from Texas to his residence in Maryland, transporting illegal migrants, guns and narcotics.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents removed Abrego Garcia back to El Salvador in March — an action that quickly attracted national attention due to the fact that he had previously been granted a withholding of removal order barring his deportation to the country. An array of Democrats — including Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen and, later, a group of House lawmakers — flew to El Salvador to highlight his case and demand he be returned to the U.S.
The Trump administration ultimately facilitated his return to the U.S. earlier in June, but for the purpose of him to face human smuggling charges in Nashville.
In their motion to delay his release from criminal custody, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers referred to his charges as a “sham of a criminal case” and accused federal prosecutors of giving conflicting statements on whether they would deport him before the conclusion of his criminal proceedings.
Holmes issued a scathing rebuke to these statements, noting that the administration’s intentions to deport him are obvious and that the accusations against him are bolstered by documented evidence.
“Given that the Defendant was first deemed deportable back in 2019 — and a copy of that order was made an exhibit to the detention hearing by the Defendant’s previous counsel — this should not be a surprise to the defense and is certainly not a surprise to this Court,” Holmes wrote Friday.
“The criminal case is not ‘a sham’ as the defense claims,” Holmes continued. “Rather, it is the product of a federal investigation which includes video evidence of the Defendant, on camera, smuggling illegal aliens and then, also on camera, lying to law enforcement about his activities.”
In addition to being a suspected MS-13 gangbanger and accused of human smuggling, Abrego Garcia was previously accused of domestic abuse by his wife — accusations that Holmes reminded his defense attorneys about.
“The United States has argued before this Court that the Defendant is a danger based on two sworn statements from his own wife that the United States submits are both truthful and disturbing; the United States did not concoct her sworn statements about the domestic violence she suffered out of whole cloth,” the magistrate judge stated.
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