Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national mistakenly deported under the Trump administration, appeared in a Tennessee courtroom on Wednesday for a hearing to determine the conditions of his release ahead of trial.
Wearing an orange jail-issued shirt and using a Spanish interpreter, Abrego listened as US Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes raised concerns about the government’s case, including the credibility of its key witnesses.
Abrego, 29, was deported from Maryland to El Salvador on March 15 despite a 2019 court order blocking his removal due to the threat of gang violence in his home country. He was returned to the US on June 6 after public pressure and legal intervention. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring with others to smuggle migrants into the US
His case has become a symbol of the Trump administration’s tough immigration stance and its legal consequences. Rights advocates say the charges are an attempt to justify violating Abrego’s civil rights by deporting him unlawfully.
Judge Holmes had already ruled that Abrego could not be held in jail pending trial, stating the government failed to show he was a danger to the public. That decision contradicted former President Trump’s claim that Abrego was a “bad guy” with a “horrible past.”
“The court will give Abrego the due process that he is guaranteed,” Holmes wrote.
Prosecutors allege that between 2016 and 2025, Abrego helped move migrants from the US-Mexico border to other parts of the country, often driving between Texas and Maryland. They claim he made over 100 trips and sometimes brought his own children along to create a cover story.
But Judge Holmes gave little weight to these claims, noting they largely came from cooperating witnesses with criminal backgrounds or pending deportation cases.
“Each cooperating witness upon whose statements the government’s argument for detention rests stands to gain something,” she wrote. One key witness, the alleged smuggling ring leader, has been deported five times and has two felony convictions.
Abrego’s wife, young son, and her two children from a previous relationship — all US citizens — live in Maryland. While Abrego may now face immigration custody, his legal team is also fighting a separate civil case that questions whether Trump-era officials violated a Supreme Court-upheld order to return him to the US
The Justice Department initially said his deportation was an “administrative error” and resisted efforts to bring him back. The decision to do so came only after a Nashville grand jury indicted him on smuggling charges.
(Reuters)
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