Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man at the center of the fierce deportation battle, renewed their call Monday that their own client remain in pretrial detention, saying they fear he’ll be quickly deported if he is released in the criminal case against him.
Mr. Abrego Garcia is the man who was deported by the U.S. in March, then un-deported in June — and is now facing a criminal case on a charge of migrant smuggling, though federal authorities hinted they believed he was guilty of far more than that.
His lawyers had been arguing for him to be released pending his trial, but have in recent weeks reversed course and now want him kept in criminal detention for at least 30 days, fearing otherwise he’ll be turned over to Homeland Security for speedy deportation.
“Given the uncertainty of the outcome of any removal proceedings, Mr. Abrego respectfully requests that, should the Court deny the government’s motion for revocation, the issuance of an order releasing Mr. Abrego be delayed for 30 days to allow Mr. Abrego to evaluate his options and determine whether additional relief is necessary,” Sean Hecker, his lead lawyer, said in a court filing Monday.
A federal judge has been deciding whether to release Mr. Abrego Garcia from pretrial detention and held a hearing last week on the matter. A decision is expected any day.
The request to keep their client in custody is the latest twist in the case, which saw Mr. Abrego Garcia deported to El Salvador on March 15 as an MS-13 gang suspect, a judge declaring that illegal and ordering him returned, the government resisting but conducting another investigation that spurred new criminal charges, and then his eventual return in early June.
Congressional Democrats and immigration activists leapt to defend Mr. Abrego Garcia early on, saying he was a “Maryland man” wrongly ripped from his family. As more details emerged — including several court filings alleging spousal abuse and video of a traffic stop that seemed to show him smuggling illegal immigrants — they stopped defending him and instead complained that he wasn’t given “due process” before his removal.
While an immigration judge had said he was deportable, the judge said he couldn’t be sent back to El Salvador in particular because of a danger of torture or persecution.
The government deported him to El Salvador anyway.
That began a long legal battle over whether he was in U.S. or Salvadoran custody, as Trump officials resisted the judge’s order to bring him back. The Supreme Court eventually ruled that the administration should attempt to “facilitate” his return.
Given his still-standing deportation order from 2019, if he is released from the criminal case, he is likely to be sent to Homeland Security for removal proceedings.
In Monday’s court filing, Mr. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said the Justice Department indicated it was fine with the request for a 30-day delay in his release from pre-trial custody.
Even as the criminal case develops, Mr. Abrego Garcia’s family is still pursuing the civil case in Maryland, where Judge Paula Xinis had ordered his un-deportation.
In that case, his lawyers want Judge Xinis to order him returned to her jurisdiction so she can protect him from deportation again.
“The court can order Abrego Garcia’s return to Maryland,” his lawyers argued earlier this month.
But the federal government says it couldn’t bring him back to Maryland because the state’s sanctuary laws mean there is no immigration detention space in the state anymore.
“Prior to the Dignity Not Detention Act, ICE had access to four detention centers in Maryland. Currently, ICE has access to no detention centers in Maryland,” Nikita Baker, acting director of ICE’s Baltimore field office, said in a sworn declaration. “All aliens that are arrested by ICE in Maryland are transferred to other ICE facilities outside the state of Maryland.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.