Kilmar Abrego Garcia Will Remain In Jail While Judge Weighs Arguments Over Potential Deportation

Image: Protestors and members of national and local media gather outside the downtown federal courthouse in Nashville, where Kilmar Abrego Garcia appeared at a hearing June 25. Image Credit: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout

By Anita Wadhwani [The Tennessee Lookout -CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] –

Kilmar Abrego Garcia will remain in jail until at least Friday as a federal judge weighs whether prosecutors have the power to keep him from being “precipitously deported.”

Garcia, 29, appeared Wednesday in a downtown Nashville courtroom for a hearing to set the conditions of his release while a criminal case against him moves forward. 

Abrego was indicted by a Tennessee grand jury June 6 on two criminal human smuggling charges. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. The indictment occurred while Abrego was housed in a Salvadoran prison, where U.S. immigration officials dispatched him after a routine traffic stop.

A Department of Justice attorney later conceded Abrego’s deportation had been a mistake. 

As Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes went over the terms of Abregos’s pretrial release, defense attorneys raised the fact that he could instead face deportation. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials are expected to take Abrego into custody immediately once he is released by the federal court. 

Sean Hecker, an attorney for Abrego, sought a decision by the judge that Abrego’s release would be conditional on prosecutors working to ensure that he would not be deported while the case remains ongoing.

Hecker also sought assurances that Abrego would not be housed in Texas, Louisiana or other parts of the country that could impede access to his attorneys.

In support of his request, Hecker noted prosecutors and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had a history of coordination and cooperation in Abrego’s case.  

DHS and federal prosecutors coordinated to bring charges against Abrego, including facilitating his return from El Salvador to face an indictment in Tennessee; they also established agreements with potential witnesses against Abrego to halt their own deportation cases, Hecker said. 

But acting U.S. Attorney Rob McGuire indicated he could make no promises about either Abrego’s placement in an ICE facility accessible to his attorneys or to prevent his deportation. He told the court that he would “do his best.”

“I will coordinate with the Department of Homeland Security, but obviously I can’t tell them what to do,” he said. McGuire noted that ICE — a department within the federal homeland security agency — is not a party to the case.

McGuire had unsuccessfully sought to keep Abrego in the custody of the U.S. Marshals, who typically oversee detainees awaiting trial on federal crimes. 

In an order issued over the weekend, Holmes denied the prosecutors’ petition, ruling that Abrego had a right to release while awaiting trial.

“These are the sort of practical implications of that (the judge’s decision),” McGuire said Wednesday. 

Holmes has given attorneys until noon Friday to submit legal arguments that address the question of “what can the government do to ensure Mr. Abrego will not be precipitously deported.”

Prosecutors, meanwhile, are pursuing an appeal of Holmes’ weekend decision to release Abrego.  

U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, Jr., separately on Wednesday, set a July 16 hearing day to review prosecutors’ request to revoke Abrego’s release from the custody of U.S. Marshals. 

The criminal charges Abrego faces stem from a 2022 Tennessee traffic stop.

Abrego was pulled over for speeding with nine Hispanic men in the back of a Chevrolet Suburban. He was neither arrested nor charged in the incident.

But a recent Department of Homeland Security investigation opened into the three-year-old stop alleged the trip was part of a years-long human smuggling scheme in which Abrego was a paid driver who transported migrants who illegally crossed the southern border to destinations across the country.

***Note from The Tennessee Conservative – this article has been edited for style & length per The Tennessee Lookout’s republishing guidelines.***