The government on Sunday appealed a federal judge’s order to release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia pending trial on human smuggling charges, another chapter in the saga of the Maryland father who had been erroneously deported to El Salvador.
The Trump administration admitted having mistakenly deported Abrego Garcia in March, and the Supreme Court ordered it to facilitate his return.
Upon his return this month, though, Abrego Garcia was hit with federal charges of conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal immigrants for financial gain and unlawful transportation of illegal immigrants for monetary gain. He pleaded not guilty.
“Abrego, like every person arrested on federal criminal charges, is entitled to a full and fair determination of whether he must remain in federal custody pending trial,” U.S. Magistrate Barbara D. Holmes of the Middle District of Tennessee wrote in her opinion Sunday. “The Court will give Abrego the due process that he is guaranteed.”
The government quickly filed a request to stay the order and keep Abrego Garcia in custody, a filing that made it clear it would again subject him to deportation proceedings.
The government argued that a stay, or pause, would allow the court “to conduct meaningful review” of custody ahead of the judge’s ruling on