Kilmar Abrego Garcia could be let out of jail this week.
Attorneys for Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man the U.S. illegally deported to El Salvador in March, on Aug. 19 asked a federal judge to issue an order releasing Abrego Garcia from custody once a different order delaying his release expires Aug. 22. They also asked that after his release, Abrego Garcia be given 48 hours to make it to Maryland and that he have access to his attorneys if he is apprehended by immigration authorities while there.
Prosecutors in an Aug. 20 filing said they still opposed letting Abrego Garcia out of federal custody. But they said that if he is released, they had no problem with the conditions requested by Abrego Garcia’s attorneys.
Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes on Aug. 21 said she will enter an order directing Abrego Garcia’s release and the conditions of his release.
Abrego Garcia is in the custody of the U.S. Marshals in an undisclosed facility. He is facing charges of human smuggling in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
Both U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw and Holmes made findings that Abrego Garcia was entitled to release ahead of his trial. But because his attorneys feared he would be placed in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and summarily deported, judges agreed to postpone letting him out of U.S. Marshals custody.
So why do Abrego Garcia’s attorneys now want him out?
A court order in a different case ensures he will not be immediately picked up by ICE in Tennessee. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, of Maryland, ruled on July 23 that the federal government must restore Abrego Garcia to his ICE order of supervision in Baltimore and give his attorneys at least 72 hours notice of plans to deport him.
His attorneys in Tennessee say they’ve retained a private security firm to take him to Maryland once he is released from custody.
ICE could still take him into custody once he makes it to Maryland.
His attorneys are a team of New York lawyers led by Sean Hecker and Nashville’s Rascoe Dean, son of former Nashville mayor Karl Dean.
The same day they filed the motion requesting Abrego Garcia’s release, they filed a motion to dismiss his criminal charges because of “vindictive and selective prosecution.”
Abrego Garcia entered the country illegally around 2011, court records state. When he was deported earlier this year, he was under a court order prohibiting his deportation to his home country El Salvador. The federal government returned him. Officials have publicly said they may deport Abrego Garcia to a different country.
This story was updated with additional information from Abrego Garcia’s attorneys’ request and subsequent filings by the magistrate judge and prosecutors.
Have questions about the justice system? Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him with questions, tips or story ideas at emealins@tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Kilmar Abrego Garcia could be released from Tennessee jail this week
