Kilmar Abrego Garcia was released from criminal custody in Tennessee on Friday, but the Trump administration has signaled that it still wants to remove him from the country after illegally sending him to El Salvador in March, where he was held in that country’s notorious terrorism prison without having been charged with or convicted of any crime.
After resisting court orders at every level of the judiciary to facilitate Abrego’s return to the U.S., the government finally did so in June. But it had criminal charges waiting for him in Tennessee, where federal prosecutors allege he illegally transported undocumented immigrants. Abrego has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and the government lost its motion to detain him ahead of trial, failing to prove that he would flee or pose a danger to the community.
After his release in Tennessee, Abrego is set to travel to Maryland, where he was living before his removal in March. The government said in a court filing that it didn’t object to him being given two days to travel to Maryland after his release from criminal custody, with the understanding that he would be placed on electronic monitoring before his release.
Abrego’s lawyers said they were retaining a private security firm to transport him from Tennessee to Maryland. They also requested that, if Abrego is taken into immigration custody when he returns to Maryland, that the authorities ensure that he has access to his lawyers to prepare for his criminal trial.
In the same filing in which the government said it didn’t object to him having two days to return to Maryland, it said it wouldn’t oppose his lawyers having access to him if he is taken into immigration custody “at a future point.” But it also said that if he is deported, then “the United States would no longer be in a position to facilitate the Defendant’s access to his attorneys at that point.”
While the situation surrounding potential further immigration proceedings is somewhat murky, a federal judge in Maryland previously issued an order that sets some parameters.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who ordered his return after the government illegally sent him to El Salvador in March, said in a July 23 order that the government can’t take him into immigration custody in Tennessee but must restore him to immigration supervision in Baltimore (which he was under prior to his unlawful removal in March), and that if the government commences “third-country removal proceedings” against Abrego, then he and his lawyers need at least three days’ notice so he can contest such a removal. Third-country removal refers to deporting someone to a country that they aren’t from, as the administration has done, for example, in sending people to South Sudan. Abrego is from El Salvador, but the administration was not allowed to send him there in March because a 2019 court order barred his removal to that country, citing Abrego’s fear of persecution there. So it is unclear what the government’s plan is for Abrego on the potential removal front, but expect continued litigation in the immigration context in addition to his separate criminal case. In the latter, Abrego’s lawyers recently filed a motion to dismiss his charges on the grounds that the administration singled him out for vengeance after he fought for his lawful return to the U.S., arguing that he was charged “because he refused to acquiesce in the government’s violation of his due process rights,” and that the criminal case “results from the government’s concerted effort to punish him for having the audacity to fight back, rather than accept a brutal injustice.” This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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