Abrego Garcia released from jail, will return to Maryland to await trial

Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia was released from federal custody Friday in Tennesee and is set to return to his family in Maryland, though his legal proceedings are far from over.

Abrego Garcia, who was charged with transporting illegal migrants in the United States, will remain under the supervision of Immigration and Customs Enforcement until his trial, which is scheduled for January 2026. The criminal investigation that resulted in those charges, stemming from a 2022 traffic stop, was later revealed to have begun while he was detained in El Salvador, raising questions about the nature of the probe.  

As part of the conditions of his release from Putnam County Jail, Abrego Garcia will wear a monitoring device and remain in Maryland. The Justice Department had argued against his release, alleging he was a danger to the community.

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A judge in Maryland also blocked ICE last month from immediately deporting Abrego Garcia if and when he is released from jail, a move that came after Justice Department attorneys told the court it was possible the government would deport him if he were granted pre-trial release.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who since March has presided over the separate, months-long civil case involving Abrego Garcia that was brought by his family in March, ordered the administration to give Abrego Garcia a 72-hour notice period before beginning any deportation proceedings, in order to allow him access to his counsel, as well s the ability to challenge his removal to a third-country, such as Mexico or South Sudan.

The Trump administration told Xinis at a hearing last month that they would immediately seek to take Abrego Garcia into ICE custody upon release from federal detention in Tennessee and begin removal proceedings, prompting Xinis to issue her order.

Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador in March in violation of a 2019 court order, and in what Trump administration officials later acknowledged was an “administrative error.”

Abrego Garcia entered the country illegally more than a decade ago and had been living in Maryland with his wife and child when authorities deported him to a maximum security prison in El Salvador in March.

Trump officials have repeatedly alleged that Abrego Garcia is a vicious MS-13 gang member — a notion the U.S. overseeing his criminal case in Tennessee dismissed as “fanciful” — and both that judge, Waverly Crenshaw, and U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes. 

His attorneys are now using these remarks to argue to the judge that the Tennessee prosecution is “selective and vindictive” and that his charges should be thrown out on those grounds.

This is a breaking story. Check back for updates.