A Tennessee judge denied the Trump administration’s request to detain Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Sunday. However, given the publicity surrounding his case as a focal point in the White House’s crackdown on illegal immigration, it is likely that the man won’t be released.
If he were to be discharged ahead of his federal trial regarding human smuggling charges, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes said, he would likely remain in custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement regardless and ultimately be deported.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a post on X that Abrego Garcia would “never go free on American soil,” and called him “a dangerous criminal illegal alien.”
But Holmes said in her ruling that the accusations of Abrego Garcia being a “flight risk” and a danger to the community were not supported by sufficient evidence. She also pressed the importance of granting him the right to due process, given how he’s been treated thus far.
Accused of being an MS-13 gang member, Abrego Garcia was deported and sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center, a megaprison in El Salvador, last March. He gained national attention as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to deport suspected immigrant gang members living illegally in the U.S. He was seen as a hardened criminal by the administration and as a victim by Trump’s opponents.
After being deported to El Salvador, he was brought back to U.S. soil earlier this month, where he will be facing criminal charges involving an alleged human smuggling incident that occurred in 2022.
The indictment against him accuses Abrego Garcia of being involved in a human smuggling ring that brought in immigrants illegally through the U.S.-Mexico border. It accuses him of making at least 100 trips across the U.S. border.
He’s also been called an “alleged woman beater” by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt after revealing that his wife filed for an order of protection against him in 2021 regarding domestic abuse.
Special Agent Peter T. Joseph told prosecutors in a hearing on June 13 that the 2022 incident involved nine people in the vehicle being driven by Abrego Garcia, who were in the country illegally. Tennessee law enforcement suspected possible smuggling, but he was allowed to go on his way with only a warning.
Still, Holmes said in her ruling that the allegations have yet to be confirmed.
He pleaded not guilty on June 13 to smuggling charges and has yet to be convicted of any crime in the U.S. or in his home country of El Salvador.
“That due process demands that every person charged with a federal crime be afforded a presumption of innocence unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and that deprivation of an individual’s liberty prior to trial can occur only in carefully limited circumstances,” Holmes wrote. “Abrego, like every person arrested on federal criminal charges, is entitled to a full and fair determination of whether he must remain in federal custody pending trial. The Court will give Abrego the due process that he is guaranteed.”
Following the order, Sean Hecker, an attorney for Abrego Garcia, said they were “pleased by the court’s thoughtful analysis and its express recognition that Mr. Abrego Garcia is entitled both to due process and the presumption of innocence, both of which our government has worked quite hard to deny him,” per The New York Times.
