Abrego Garcia to remain behind bars for at least a month even as judge rejects Trump administration's claim he's dangerous

CNN

23-07-2025

A federal judge in Tennessee declined on Wednesday to undo a separate judge's decision to let Kilmar Abrego Garcia remain free while he awaits trial on human smuggling charges — though he'll continue to remain behind bars for at least another month.
The ruling from US District Judge Waverly Crenshaw said federal prosecutors had not shown 'through clear and convincing evidence' that Abrego Garcia would present a danger to others or the community if he were allowed to remain out of criminal custody as his case unfolds.
'The government's general statements about the crimes brought against Abrego, and the evidence it has in support of those crimes, do not prove Abrego's dangerousness,' Crenshaw wrote in a 37-page ruling rejecting a request from the Trump administration that he should reverse a ruling by a magistrate judge in Nashville that also said prosecutors hadn't made a strong case for keeping Abrego Garcia behind bars for now.
But the magistrate judge — Barbara Holmes — said in another decision that Abrego Garcia would remain behind bars for at least 30 more days, granting an unopposed request by his lawyers for him to stay in criminal custody. Abrego Garcia's lawyers had made the request earlier this week in an effort to ensure removal proceedings wouldn't quickly begin once he's released from custody.
Just as Crenshaw, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, released his ruling, a third judge in Maryland who is overseeing a civil case brought by Abrego Garcia and his family over his wrongful deportation earlier this year to El Salvador released her own ruling that bars the administration from quickly deporting him again should he be released from criminal custody in coming days.
That ruling from US District Judge Paula Xinis, also an Obama appointee, is meant to do two things: Restore Abrego Garcia to the immigration position he was in before his deportation in mid-March and ensure his due process rights aren't violated again should officials try to remove him from the US a second time.
'These rulings are a powerful rebuke of the government's lawless conduct and a critical safeguard for Kilmar's due process rights,' said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Abrego Garcia's attorneys, in a statement. 'After the government unlawfully deported him once without warning, this legal protection is essential.'
Xinis is prohibiting the Trump administration from taking Abrego Garcia into US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody once he's released from criminal custody, and she ordered officials to put him back into the position of being under supervision by the ICE Baltimore Field Office, which is what his status quo was prior to mid-March. That supervision allowed him to work and live in Maryland, with occasional check-ins with an immigration officer.
'Once Abrego Garcia is restored under the ICE Supervision Order out of the Baltimore Field Office, Defendants may take whatever action is available to them under the law,' the judge wrote, adding that it's possible he could be ordered to appear before immigration officials in Baltimore, who may begin the process of deporting him.
'So long as such actions are taken within the bounds of the Constitution and applicable statutes, this Court will have nothing further to say,' Xinis wrote.
The Trump administration quickly criticized the judge's decision.
'The fact this unhinged judge is trying to tell ICE they can't arrest an MS-13 gang member, indicted by a grand jury for human trafficking, and subject to immigration arrest under federal law is LAWLESS AND INSANE,' Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said on X, referring to the government's allegation that Abrego Garcia is a gang member.
The ruling also puts guardrails on the government's ability to quickly deport Abrego Garcia to a nation other than his home country of El Salvador.
Those measures, the judge said, are meant to ensure the government won't run roughshod over Abrego Garcia's due process rights, which include having the chance to raise a claim that he has a fear of facing torture in the third country the government may want to deport him to.
Should officials be planning to deport him to a third country, they must give his lawyers at least 72 hours' notice prior to that intended removal so he has an opportunity to make such 'claims of credible fear or seek any other relief available to him under the law and the Constitution.'
The Maryland father of three was wrongly deported to El Salvador in mid-March, setting off a monthslong legal fracas before Xinis, who ordered the government to secure his return to the US. He was brought back to the US last month to face federal human smuggling charges in Tennessee.
Abrego Garcia is currently in pre-trial detention in Tennessee but could soon be released from that court's authority and turned over to the Department of Homeland Security.
Last month, his attorneys in the case before Xinis, of the federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, raised concerns that the Trump administration would quickly deport him once he's out of criminal custody and back in the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The government has wavered in recent weeks on whether they would deport him before he stands trial in the human smuggling case.'
'All we're trying to do for today is ensure that there is no constitutional violation,' Andrew Rossman, one of Abrego Garcia's attorneys, said during a recent court hearing.
The government is already barred from removing Abrego Garcia to El Salvador because of a 2019 order from an immigration judge.