NASHVILLE, Tennessee - A U.S. judge on Wednesday said she would order the pre-trial release of Kilmar Abrego, a migrant who was wrongly deported under the Trump administration. Although Abrego will be released without bail, the judge noted he would be immediately taken into immigration custody and still face criminal migrant smuggling charges.
Nashville-based U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes said that before formally ordering Abrego's release, she would give his lawyers the chance to request that she direct the Justice Department to try to ensure that the federal government would not deport him before his criminal case played out.
Holmes ruled on Sunday that the administration could not continue to detain Abrego, 29, pending trial on two charges accusing him of conspiring with at least five other members of a smuggling ring to bring migrants to the United States illegally. She said the statements from cooperating witnesses were not reliable enough to detain him.
Abrego, a Salvadoran national who had been living in Maryland with his U.S. citizen wife and their young son, has pleaded not guilty.
In urging Holmes to keep Abrego detained in criminal custody pending trial, prosecutors said that if he were released, he would be placed into immigration custody and possibly deported. Sean Hecker, Abrego's lawyer, told Holmes that because prosecutors had granted witnesses against Abrego relief from possible deportation, it should be able to do the same with him.
"The government has ensured witness cooperation by ensuring that people will not be deported," Hecker said.
Robert McGuire, the top federal prosecutor in Nashville, said the Justice Department would seek to coordinate with the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement.
After the hearing, Abrego was led out of the courtroom's back door as his wife and brother looked on from the court audience.
Abrego was deported in March to El Salvador despite a 2019 judicial order barring such a move on the grounds that he could face persecution by gangs in his home country. The Trump administration brought him back earlier this month to face the charges. It has not indicated the country to which they may now seek to deport him.
At Wednesday's hearing, Holmes said Abrego would also be required to seek employment while released, and limit his travel to the Nashville area and Maryland. Abrego worked in construction after his 2019 receipt of withholding of removal status, which allowed him to apply for a work permit.
The judge said those conditions would only apply in the event he is released from immigration custody.
Abrego's case has become emblematic of the Republican president's aggressive immigration crackdown and the pushback from rights groups.
His lawyers have called the charges an effort by the administration to justify his deportation.
Merit Street Media
