A federal judge in Tennessee ordered Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia to be released from U.S. Marshals’ custody pending a criminal trial, while another federal judge in Maryland issued an order on Wednesday preventing him from being quickly deported.
Judge Waverly Crenshaw of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee ordered on Wednesday that Abrego Garcia be released from custody. The order came roughly at the same time U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the Trump administration to return Abrego Garcia to Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervision in Maryland once he is released from custody in Tennessee.
Xinis also ordered the Trump administration to give Abrego Garcia 72 hours’ notice if the administration intends to deport him to a third country.
Abrego Garcia will be released from custody in Tennessee upon the issuance of a release order by a magistrate judge, per Crenshaw’s order. The Department of Justice and Abrego Garcia’s lawyers had come to an agreement filed in Crenshaw’s court Sunday, which said Abrego Garcia would remain in criminal custody for at least 30 days to allow him time to evaluate his legal options.
The dual orders in federal court are the latest in a months-long legal saga surrounding Abrego Garcia’s deportation to his native El Salvador earlier this year.
Abrego Garcia was deported to his home country despite a protective order preventing him from being deported there, but allowing him to be deported to any other country. He was brought back to the U.S. in June to be arraigned on criminal human smuggling charges in federal court in Tennessee, but now is slated to be released before the trial as the Trump administration seeks his deportation.
In court hearings, the Trump administration has said it intends to begin removal proceedings against Abrego Garcia as soon as he is released from custody. Xinis said in her order that her court would “have nothing further to say” if the administration returns Abrego Garcia to ICE supervision in Maryland and lawfully seeks his removal.
DOJ AGREES TO KEEP ABREGO GARCIA IN CUSTODY FOR AT LEAST 30 DAYS
“Once Abrego Garcia is restored to ICE supervision in this District, he may be ordered to appear at the Baltimore Field Office for commencement of immigration proceedings, and these proceedings may or may not include lawful arrest, detention and eventual removal,” Xinis wrote. “So long as such actions are taken within the bounds of the Constitution and applicable statutes, this Court will have nothing further to say.”
The Trump administration will be unable to deport Abrego Garcia to a third country immediately due to Xinis’s order, and it would need to have a 2019 protective order reversed to be able to send him back to his home country.