Tennessee judge to hear arguments about releasing Kilmar Abrego Garcia from pretrial detention [View all]
Source: AP
Updated 12:11 AM EDT, June 13, 2025
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee judge is scheduled to hear arguments Friday about whether Kilmar Abrego Garcia can be released from jail pending the outcome of a trial on human smuggling charges.
In a motion asking U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes to order Abrego Garcia detained, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Rob McGuire described him as both a danger to the community and a flight risk. Abrego Garcia’s attorneys disagree. They point out that he was already wrongly detained in a notorious Salvadoran prison thanks to government error, and argue that due process and “basic fairness” require him to be set free.
Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador who had been living in the United States for more than a decade before he was wrongfully deported in March. The expulsion violated a 2019 U.S. immigration judge’s order that shielded him from deportation to his native country because he likely faced gang persecution there.
His case quickly became a rallying point for opposition to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. While the Trump administration described the mistaken removal as “an administrative error,” officials have continued to justify it by insisting that Abrego Garcia was a member of the El Salvadoran gang MS-13. His wife and attorneys have denied the allegations, saying he is simply a construction worker and family man.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/abrego-garcia-deportation-error-2bf259d9de88334bbdfb6d565b36e633
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