Kilmar Abrego Garcia released from custody in Tennessee while he awaits trial

U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw upheld his release last month, saying he saw no evidence Abrego Garcia “has ever been affiliated” with MS-13 or any other gang.

WASHINGTON — Kilmar Abrego Garcia was released from custody in Tennessee on Friday, allowing him to return home to Maryland while he faces federal charges of human smuggling and likely efforts by the Trump administration to deport him.

“Today, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is free,” his attorney, Sean Hecker, told WUSA9. “He is presently en route to his family in Maryland, after being unlawfully arrested and deported, and then imprisoned, all because of the government’s vindictive attack on a man who had the courage to fight back against the Administration’s continuing assault on the rule of law. He is grateful that his access to American courts has provided meaningful due process.”

Abrego Garcia’s grant of relative freedom, his first since he was unlawfully deported to El Salvador in March in violation of an immigration judge’s order, may be brief. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have said the agency will seek to swiftly detain and begin removal proceedings to a third, as-yet-unidentified country once Abrego Garcia is no longer in the custody of U.S. Marshals.

Last month, a federal judge in Maryland barred ICE from immediately re-arresting Abrego Garcia. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered him returned to the same supervision conditions he was under prior to his deportation in March. She also ordered ICE to provide at least 72 hours’ notice before initiating any new efforts to remove Abrego Garcia from the country.

What’s next?

After being released Friday, Abrego Garcia will have 48 hours to return to Maryland before he has to report for pre-trial supervision. A private security firm hired by his legal team will help bring him back from Tennessee to Maryland.

There, his legal fights will continue on two fronts. Earlier this week, attorneys from the New York law firm Hecker Fink representing Abrego Garcia in his criminal case filed a motion to dismiss for vindictive prosecution. The evidence of that, they say, is clear — from a whistleblower complaint filed by former Justice Department lawyer Erez Reuveni, who claims he was fired after refusing to file a misleading brief in the case, to unsubstantiated but highly publicized claims that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13.

“This case results from the government’s concerted effort to punish him for having the audacity to fight back, rather than accept a brutal injustice,” his team wrote in the motion.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw warned attorneys to limit any extrajudicial statements about the case. The warning came after attorneys for Abrego Garcia highlighted repeated attacks against their client on social media by the Department of Homeland Security.

“Our Constitution requires that Abrego is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury,” Crenshaw wrote.

A separate group of attorneys representing Abrego Garcia in Maryland is also fighting to ensure he receives the due process he was denied last time. Abrego Garcia, who had legal authorization to work in the U.S. until 2029, says he was repeatedly told, falsely, that he would have the opportunity to see a judge after he was arrested by ICE in March. Instead, he was deported without a hearing to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison. There, according to a filing in July, he was threatened and tortured.

Xinis, whose order currently bars Abrego Garcia from being deported without at least 72 hours’ notice, expressed her repeated frustration during a series of hearings last month about the government’s inability, or unwillingness, to provide clear answers about what would happen if he was released from DOJ custody.

“It’s like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall trying to figure out what’s going to happen,” Xinis lamented at one point.

Why was Abrego Garcia released?

Abrego Garcia’s release has been delayed for months since Magistrate Judge Barbara D. Holmes in Tennessee first ordered it on June 22. Holmes, who acknowledged Abrego Garcia was likely to go immediately into ICE custody, said federal prosecutors had failed to show he was a danger to the community or a flight risk.

Crenshaw, who was appointed to the federal bench in 2016 by former President Barack Obama, upheld that order last month. Crenshaw said the Trump administration had failed to back up its allegations that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13.

“There is no evidence before the Court that Abrego: has markings or tattoos showing gang affiliation; has working relationships with known MS-13 members; ever told any of the witnesses that he is a MS-13 member; or has ever been affiliated with any sort of gang activity… Based on the record before it, for the Court to find that Abrego is member of or in affiliation with MS-13, it would have to make so many inferences from the Government’s proffered evidence in its favor that such conclusion would border on fanciful,” Crenshaw wrote.

Federal prosecutors have sought to have Abrego Garcia remain in custody – in part because, they warned, ICE would likely swiftly remove him from the country again if he was released.

Abrego Garcia was returned to the U.S. in June to face federal human smuggling charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. During the stop, which did not result in any charges, Abrego Garcia was found to be driving an SUV with eight passengers, none of whom had identification. Abrego Garcia told Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers he and his passengers had been in St. Louis doing construction work. According to charging documents, investigators believe the vehicle Abrego Garcia was driving had actually been in the Houston area.

The Justice Department has accused Abrego Garcia of being part of a nationwide human smuggling operation that moved firearms, narcotics and undocumented immigrants from Texas to multiple states, including Maryland.

Abrego Garcia is scheduled to stand trial on those charges in a Tennessee federal court in January. He has denied any association with MS-13 or involvement in a human smuggling ring. His attorneys have accused the Trump administration of ginning up federal charges against him as a way of saving face after the Supreme Court ruled unanimously on April 10 that the government must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the country.