WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department said Thursday that it intends to try Kilmar Abrego Garcia on federal smuggling charges in Tennessee before it moves to deport him, addressing fears that he could be expelled again from the U.S. within days.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville, Tennessee, recently ruled that Abrego Garcia has a right to be released from jail while awaiting trial on the smuggling charges. But she decided Wednesday to keep him in custody for at least a few more days over concerns that U.S. immigration officials would swiftly detain him and try to deport him again.
But DOJ spokesperson Chad Gilmartin told The Associated Press that Abrego Garcia will first be tried in court on the charges.
“This defendant has been charged with horrific crimes, including trafficking children, and will not walk free in our country again,” Gilmartin said.
Abrego Garcia became a flashpoint over President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies when he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March. Facing mounting pressure and a Supreme Court order, the Trump administration returned him this month to face the smuggling charges, which Abrego Garcia’s attorneys characterized as an attempt to justify his erroneous deportation.
As Abrego Garcia’s criminal case has moved forward, concerns grew that he would be swiftly deported upon his release from jail in Tennessee.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers filed an emergency request Thursday to a federal judge in Maryland to order the government to take Abrego Garcia to that state upon release, an arrangement that would prevent his deportation before trial.
“If this Court does not act swiftly, then the Government is likely to whisk Abrego Garcia away to some place far from Maryland,” Abrego Garcia’s attorneys wrote.
Abrego Garcia had lived and worked as a construction worker in Maryland with his American wife and children for more than a decade before his deportation in March. His wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, is suing the Trump administration over his deportation in the Maryland federal court where Abrego Garcia’s attorneys filed their emergency request.
“We have concerns that the government may try to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia quickly over the weekend,” one of his attorneys, Jonathan Cooper, told U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland, during a conference call Thursday afternoon.
Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn acknowledged on the call that the U.S. government plans to deport Abrego Garcia to a “third country” that isn’t El Salvador. But he said there was no timeline for the deportation plans.
“We do plan to comply with the orders we’ve received from this court and other courts,” he said. “But there’s no timeline for these specific proceedings.”
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson posted on X later Thursday: “Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States to face trial for the egregious charges against him. He will face the full force of the American justice system — including serving time in American prison for the crimes he’s committed.”
Xinis said during the conference call that she could not move as quickly as Abrego Garcia’s attorneys would like. She said she had to consider the Trump administration’s pending motions to dismiss the case before she could rule on the emergency request. The judge scheduled a July 7 court hearing in Maryland to discuss the emergency request and other matters.
When the Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia, it violated a U.S. immigration judge’s order in 2019 that barred his expulsion to his native country. The judge had found that Abrego Garcia faced a credible threat from gangs who had terrorized him and his family.
The Trump administration described its violation of the immigration judge’s 2019 order as an administrative error. Trump and other officials doubled down on claims Abrego Garcia was in the MS-13 gang, an accusation that Abrego Garcia denies.
Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty on June 13 to smuggling charges that his attorneys have characterized as an attempt to justify his mistaken expulsion to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
Those charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding in Tennessee, during which Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with nine passengers without luggage.
Holmes, the magistrate judge in Tennessee, wrote in a ruling Sunday that federal prosecutors failed to show that Abrego Garcia was a flight risk or a danger to the community.
During a court hearing Wednesday, Holmes set specific conditions for Abrego Garcia’s release that included him living with his brother, a U.S. citizen, in Maryland. But she held off on releasing him over concerns that prosecutors can’t prevent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from deporting him.
Holmes ordered Abrego Garcia’s lawyers and prosecutors to file briefs on the matter Thursday and Friday respectively.
