Kilmar Abrego Garcia will remain incarcerated in Tennessee for at least another week after a federal judge heard prosecutors’ arguments that he poses a flight risk and a danger to the community if released.
U.S. District Court Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw, Jr. said he would make a decision as early as next week on the pretrial release of Abrego, a Maryland resident who was wrongly dispatched to a notorious prison in El Salvador as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans.
Abrego was brought to Nashville in June to face two criminal human smuggling charges tied to a 2022 Tennessee traffic stop. The grand jury indictments against Abrego were brought even as his deportation case drew national attention, and after the Supreme Court ordered Trump administration officials to facilitate his return from El Salvador.
Abrego, 29, has pleaded not guilty to the Tennessee charges.
What would immediately happen to Abrego should Crenshaw order his pretrial release in Tennessee remains an open question.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, in a separate Maryland case centered on Abrego’s wrongful deportation, said they planned to take him into custody immediately.
ICE officials said they may then send him to a “third country.”
Abrego, a Salvadoran national who entered the U.S. illegally nearly 15 years ago, has an active immigration case that includes an order barring U.S. officials from returning him to El Salvador due to fears of gang violence.
This week’s hearing was the third in recent weeks to review the pretrial release of Abrego, who sat next to his attorneys in an orange jumpsuit for the hours-long hearing. His wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, attended the hearing.
Last month, Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes ruled Abrego was not a flight risk or a community danger, setting certain conditions for his release that included ankle monitoring.
Holmes subsequently agreed to a request by Abrego’s attorneys to temporarily keep him detained while they sought assurances from the government that he would not be deported.
Crenshaw on Wednesday heard the prosecution’s appeal of Holmes’ release order.
The judge appeared, at times, skeptical of the government’s arguments to keep Abrego detained, including allegations that Abrego is a member of the notorious MS-13 gang.
Crenshaw noted there is a high bar in federal court that evidence be “clear and convincing” to warrant pretrial detention.
“The proof on MS-13 in and of itself does not meet ‘clear and convincing,’” Crenshaw said
