Abrego Garcia Freed From Jail to Await Human Smuggling Trial (1)

Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been freed by a Tennessee court to return to his home state of Maryland while fighting US human smuggling charges, as he continues to argue the case was brought improperly as revenge for fighting his accidental deportation.

A US judge in Nashville on Friday ordered Abrego Garcia’s release into the “third-party custody” of his brother as part of an earlier release deal. Abrego Garcia, who agreed to wear an electronic monitor, must report to pre-trial officials in Maryland by Monday morning.

Abrego Garcia is “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,” his attorney Sean Hecker, with Hecker Fink LLP in Manhattan, said in a statement.

Abrego Garcia became a face of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants after he was deported to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador despite a court order barring his removal to that country. He was charged after being returned to the US in a high-profile immigration battle.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said in a filing earlier this month that they were working with a private security firm to transport him to Maryland so that he is supervised while traveling from Tennessee.

“Activist liberal judges have attempted to obstruct our law enforcement every step of the way in removing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from our country,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.

In Friday’s ruling, the judge said that in the event Abrego Garcia is detained by immigration authorities upon his return to Maryland, he should have physical and phone access to his attorneys so he can prepare for his trial.

The decision comes nearly a month after the judge ruled that Abrego Garcia need not remain in custody while he fights the criminal case, and a Maryland judge granted his request to block federal immigration agents from arresting him once he’s freed.

After Abrego Garcia’s erroneous deportation, the US Supreme Court ordered the administration to facilitate his return, which the White House initially balked at. He was eventually returned, but only to face charges that he illegally transported undocumented immigrants within the country.

(Updates with comment from a lawyer for Abrego Garcia in third paragraph.)

To contact the reporter on this story:
Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.net

Anthony Aarons, Peter Blumberg

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