Judge Orders Abrego Garcia Released on Smuggling Charges Before Trial
How did your country report this? Share your view in the comments.
Diverging Reports Breakdown
Judge Orders Abrego Garcia Released on Smuggling Charges Before Trial
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported from El Salvador to the U.S. last month. He is now awaiting trial on charges of smuggling. A judge ruled that he is not a flight risk and should be released from custody. The decision is a blow to President Donald Trump’s efforts to deport him.
In a scathing order, the judge, Barbara D. Holmes, ruled that Mr. Abrego Garcia was neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community. The decision undermined repeated claims by President Trump and some of his top aides who have described the Salvadoran immigrant as a violent gang member, even a terrorist.
But the decision by Judge Holmes, filed in Federal District Court in Nashville, was likely to be a short-lived victory for Mr. Abrego Garcia and his defense team. The judge acknowledged that he would probably remain in the custody of immigration officials, as his charges of smuggling undocumented immigrants across the United States moved through the courts.
Judge Holmes’s ruling was the first judicial evaluation of the charges filed against Mr. Abrego Garcia since he was suddenly brought back to U.S. soil last month after prosecutors indicted him in Nashville. The decision to get him out of Salvadoran custody came as the Justice Department was under mounting pressure in a separate civil case. The judge in that case has threatened to hold administration officials in contempt for their serial evasions and delays in complying with her order to free him from El Salvador.
Nashville federal judge rules Abrego Garcia can be released pre-trial, but he may not go free
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was wrongly deported to El Salvador in March. He pleaded not guilty to charges of human smuggling during a June 13 hearing. Federal Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes ruled that he can be released as he awaits trial. He will be transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, where officials say he will be held until his trial or his deportation. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday to determine the conditions of his pre-trial release.
A protester outside the June 13 hearing for Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
A federal judge in Nashville has ruled that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man wrongly deported to El Salvador in March, can be released as he awaits trial. However, upon his release, Abrego Garcia will be transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, where officials say he will be held until his trial or his deportation.
Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty to charges of human smuggling during a June 13 hearing, one week after he arrived back in the U.S. from a prison in El Salvador.
U.S. Attorney Rob McGuire argued in court that Abrego Garcia’s fame makes him a flight risk, as his deportation has sparked “strong feelings” among critics of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.
In her ruling, Federal Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes wrote that the government did not prove that Abrego Garcia was a flight risk, but that her ruling was more of an “academic exercise” since his release will put him into ICE custody. Holmes scheduled a hearing for Wednesday to determine the conditions of his pre-trial release.
The charges against Abrego Garcia stem from a 2022 traffic stop by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, when he was pulled over while driving an SUV with nine other men. Prosecutors say Abrego Garcia had been part of an MS-13 gang operation, transporting people without legal status from Texas to Maryland.
Attorneys for the 29-year-old father of three have said that the charges should be regarded with “skepticism,” alleging a lack of due process in Abrego Garcia’s deportation. He was sent to El Salvador despite an immigration court order that mandated he stay in the U.S. over fears of gang violence in his home country.
Wednesday’s hearing could clarify where Abrego Garcia goes next.
Federal judge says Abrego Garcia can be released on bail. That doesn’t mean he will be
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was wrongly deported from Maryland to El Salvador in March. He was recently returned to the U.S. to face human smuggling charges. A federal judge in Nashville ruled on Sunday that he can be released on bail. But the ruling doesn’t mean that he will be able to walk free.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes of the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee ordered that Abrego Garcia be released as he awaits trial on human smuggling charges.
In her ruling, Holmes wrote that the government failed to prove that Abrego Garcia was a flight risk. Still, she acknowledged there is something the two sides in the court agree on: Abrego Garcia will likely remain in custody whether she upheld the prosecution’s motion for detention or not.
The 29-year-old, who was wrongly deported from Maryland to El Salvador in March and only recently returned to the U.S. to face these federal charges, may go into Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, custody instead, officials say.
“That suggests the Court’s determination of the detention issues is little more than an academic exercise,” Holmes wrote in her opinion.
Still, she went on to explain, the principle of due process requires everyone accused of a federal crime to be afforded a presumption of innocence.
Prosecutors argue Abrego Garcia conspired to transport thousands of migrants without legal status from Texas across the U.S. between 2016-2025.
The defense says that the charges are to distract from the lack of due process in Abrego Garcia’s case.
Another hearing is set for Wednesday afternoon to set conditions for his release.
Copyright 2025 NPR
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/22/us/politics/abrego-garcia-bail-smuggling-charges.html