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A federal magistrate judge has ordered that Kilmar Abrego García, the man improperly deported to an El Salvador prison, can be freed ahead of his federal trial in Nashville related to a 2022 traffic stop. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s returning home to Maryland or even leaving federal custody.
Late Sunday afternoon, Judge Barbara Holmes made public her order, ruling that, “Overall, the Court cannot find from the evidence presented that Abrego’s release clearly and convincingly poses an irremediable danger to other persons or to the community.”
Federal prosecutors offer no direct evidence for charges against Kilmar Armando Abrego García
In a full-day hearing earlier this month, federal prosecutors led by acting U.S. Attorney Rob McGuire produced little evidence that García was a threat. Assistant Federal Public Defender Will Allensworth told the court that “the evidence that came here was pretty messy. We don’t know how many layers of hearsay there are here.”
Holmes agreed in her ruling.
“The Court finds nothing in Abrego’s history to suggest that he is a flight risk. ... There is no allegation, much less evidence, that he has intentionally failed to appear in court in the past,” she wrote. “Overall, the government simply has not shown a serious risk that Abrego will intentionally avoid appearing as required.”
McGuire filed notice of appeal to the court on Sunday and asked the judge to stay her order pending the ruling of a higher court.
All of this may be an academic exercise, Holmes noted in her ruling: The government is still attempting to deport Abrego García. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed a detainer on him, and — if and when he is released — ICE would take custody of him.
Holmes suggested in a hearing that those maneuvers were “above my pay grade.”
A 2019 federal court ruling prevents Abrego García from being deported back to El Salvador, but the Trump administration could attempt to deport him to another country.
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The charges in Tennessee are the product of a 2022 traffic stop in Putnam County, where Abrego García was driving a van with nine passengers. The Tennessee Highway Patrol ultimately let him go with a warning, but the stop was resurrected and turned into a human trafficking charge after García’s mistaken deportation to the infamous CECOT prison gained international attention. After saying that he would never be returned to the U.S., the Trump administration reversed and returned him, but to Nashville, where an indictment had been placed under seal. Last week, Abrego García hired four private attorneys to replace the federal public defenders who previously represented him.
Holmes scheduled a hearing for 2 p.m. Wednesday to review the conditions of Abrego García’s release and any outstanding issues.
This article first appeared on Nashville Banner and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
