Federal prosecutors in Nashville ask judge to keep Abrego Garcia detained until trial
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security officer stood watch at the rear of the Fred D. Thompson Federal Building as Kilmar Abrego Garcia was brought to Tennessee on criminal charges. (Photo by John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Federal prosecutors on Monday detailed legal arguments for the detention until trial of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man mistakenly deported by the Trump administration.
Abrego Garcia was returned to Nashville from El Salvador on Friday to face two criminal human smuggling charges tied to a 2022 Tennessee traffic stop.
He appeared briefly in a downtown Nashville courtroom late Friday, and is scheduled to return to court this Friday for a formal arraignment of the charges against him.
That hearing will also consider a motion by the Justice Department to keep Abrego Garcia in custody until the date of his trial, which has not yet been set.
A federal grand jury indictment issued under seal May 21 and made public June 6 charges Abrego Garcia with 'conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal aliens for financial gain' and 'unlawful transportation of illegal aliens for financial gain.'
Wrongly deported Maryland man Abrego Garcia returned to U.S.
Abrego Garcia 'knowingly and unlawfully transported thousands of undocumented aliens' for profit between 2016 and 2025 as a member of the MS-13 gang, prosecutors said.
Dumaka Shabazz, a federal public defender appointed to represent Garcia in the criminal case, declined comment on the charges Monday.
'At this date, we are not inclined to give a statement,' Shabazz said via email.
The criminal charges stem from a November 2022 traffic stop in Putnam County by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, court records show.
Abrego Garcia was driving an SUV with nine Hispanic men when he was pulled over for speeding on Interstate 40 in Putnam County, about 80 miles east of Nashville, court records said. He was not charged in the incident.
Prosecutors now allege that further investigation revealed the stop involved Abrego Garcia smuggling migrants within the United States illegally.
Abrego Garcia faces a potentially lengthy sentence: a maximum of 10 years in prison for each person he allegedly transported.
'A stain on the Constitution': Abrego Garcia lawyers refuse to drop his case against U.S.
A resident of Maryland until a prior traffic stop on March 12 this year, Abrego Garcia was dispatched within days to an El Salvador prison along with scores of other detainees.
An immigrant from El Salvador, Abrego Garcia had received an immigration court order in 2019 that allowed him to reside in the United States and specifically barred the federal government from deporting him to El Salvador, where, he said, he feared gang violence.
The prosecutors' memo seeking Abrego Garcia's detention until trial, filed in federal court Monday, alleges there is a 'serious risk' that Abrego Garcia 'and/or persons acting on his behalf will obstruct justice and/or intimidate the witnesses against him' should he be released from federal custody pending his trial.
They also argued Abrego Garcia is a flight risk and a danger to the community.
In their memo, prosecutors said they plan to raise allegations that children without legal immigration status were transported and 'used in unsafe ways' to avoid detection of Abrego Garcia's illegal smuggling activities.
Abrego Garcia has not been charged with crimes involving the illegal transport of children.
Prosecutors also acknowledged that, should Abrego Garcia be released pending trial, he would likely be immediately taken into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to face further proceedings in immigration court.
Nevertheless, they argued that should he not be taken into ICE custody, Abrego Garcia would have an 'enormous reason to flee.'
U.S. Magistrate Barbara Holmes, who presided over Friday's brief hearing, has given Abrego's attorneys until Wednesday to file a legal response.
Supplemental-Memorandum-in-Support-of-Governments-Motion-for-Detention
This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.
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Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia argue he isn't a flight risk and should be released
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