Kilmar Abrego Garcia to wait in jail over fears ICE will deport him
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Judge keeps Kilmar Abrego Garcia in jail over concerns ICE will deport him immediately after release
Kilmar Abrego Garcia will remain in jail for at least a few more days while attorneys spar over whether prosecutors can prevent his deportation. A federal judge ruled the Salvadoran father, who was criminally accused of human smuggling, has a right to be released and even set specific conditions. He can be released on his own recognizance but must attend anger management counseling, home detention, location monitoring and drug testing, the judge said previously. President Donald Trump’s administration has suggested that immigration officials would deport him as soon as he is released. He’s accused of a range of crimes, for which he has not been charged, including “solicitation of child pornography”
Kilmar Abrego Garcia will remain in jail for now after fears that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will swoop to deport him as soon as he is released.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys expressed concern that his release would lead to immediate detention by ICE and deportation.
A federal judge ruled the Salvadoran father, who was criminally accused of human smuggling, has a right to be released and even set specific conditions.
But he will remain in jail for at least a few more days while attorneys spar over whether prosecutors can prevent Abrego Garcia’s deportation if he is released to await trial.
Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville on Wednesday rejected federal prosecutors’ request to imprison the wrongfully deported Salvadoran father while he is awaiting trial on criminal charges.
open image in gallery Abrego Garcia’s attorneys expressed concern that his release would lead to immediate detention by ICE and deportation. ( Family Handout )
He can be released on his own recognizance but must attend anger management counseling, home detention, location monitoring and drug testing, the judge said previously.
But President Donald Trump’s administration has suggested that immigration officials would deport him as soon as he is released.
Three months after he was arrested and wrongfully deported to a brutal Salvadoran prison, Abrego Garcia, 29, was abruptly returned to the United States to face a federal criminal indictment.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Federal judges and a unanimous Supreme Court had ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” his return after government lawyers admitted he was removed from the country due to an “administrative error.”
But the government spent weeks battling court orders while officials publicly said he would never step foot in the U.S.
open image in gallery Attorney General Pam Bondi has sought to portray Abrego Garcia as a public menace and threat to society. ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. )
Last week, Holmes denied the Justice Department’s motion to keep Abrego Garcia in pretrial detention, noting the “multiple layers of hearsay” in government arguments that “defied common sense.”
Holmes conceded, however, that Abrego Garcia was likely to end up back in federal custody with Immigration and Customs Enforcement while his criminal case moves through the courts.
Federal prosecutors and Attorney General Pam Bondi have sought to portray Abrego Garcia as a public menace and threat to society in a motion to keep him imprisoned as his case moves to trial. He’s accused of a range of crimes, for which he has not been charged, including “solicitation of child pornography.”
Judge Holmes cast doubt on prosecutors’ arguments, noting that they have been filtered through “at least three, if not four or more, levels of hearsay” and carried “no weight” legally.
“That the level of hearsay cannot even be determined renders the evidence patently unreliable,” she wrote.
The Associated Press contributed reporting