Kilmar Abrego Garcia Released From Tennessee Jail

By Sam Dorman

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a suspected gang member at the center of a high-profile deportation case, has been released from a jail in Tennessee.

According to his attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, Abrego Garcia has been reunited with his family as he awaits a trial on human-smuggling charges. He was released on Aug. 22.

The Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia to El Salvador earlier this year, prompting a court order to facilitate his return to the United States. The Department of Justice later indicted him on two counts, including “unlawful transportation of undocumented aliens.”

It alleged that Abrego Garcia used his status in the criminal gang MS-13 to further illegal activity. According to the Justice Department, Abrego Garcia and co-conspirators in various countries knowingly worked to transport illegal immigrants into the United States.

Earlier this week, the Justice Department maintained that Abrego Garcia was a flight risk but said that if he were released, it had no objection to allowing 48 hours for him to travel to Baltimore. The government’s understanding, the filing said, was that Abrego Garcia would be placed on an electronic monitoring device.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes ordered his release, stating on Aug. 22 that he would need to remain in the custody of his brother as a designated third-party custodian.

In June, the Justice Department requested that Abrego Garcia be detained “because he poses a danger to the community and a serious risk of flight, and no condition or combination of conditions would ensure the safety of the community or his appearance in court.”

“Over the past nine years, the defendant has played a significant role in an undocumented alien smuggling ring that has resulted in thousands of undocumented aliens being illegally transported into and throughout the United States, including members and associates of La Mara Salvatrucha (‘MS-13’), a recently designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, as well as unaccompanied minor children,” the filing added.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys responded by denying that his alleged crime involved a minor and that there was a serious risk he would flee.

“Mr. Abrego Garcia obviously denies the government’s baseless gang-affiliation allegations, but, even accepting them as true, they’re insufficient as a matter of law to support a finding that he poses a ‘serious risk’ of obstructive behavior,” their response reads.

In Tennessee, Abrego Garcia’s attorney filed a motion to dismiss the Justice Department’s case, alleging that it “results from the government’s concerted effort to punish him for having the audacity to fight back, rather than accept a brutal injustice.” His attorney has denied that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13.

The motion alleged that Abrego Garcia “was beaten and otherwise subjected to inhumane conditions” at the CECOT prison in El Salvador.

According to Abrego Garcia’s attorneys, the government’s prosecution in Tennessee was selective and vindictive and therefore shouldn’t proceed. They pointed to public statements the administration made about Abrego Garcia.

“The unprecedented public pronouncements attacking Mr. Abrego for his successful exercise of constitutional rights by senior cabinet members, leaders of the DOJ, and even the President of the United States, make this the rare case where actual vindictiveness is clear from the record,” the motion reads.

A citizen of El Salvador, Abrego Garcia faced potential removal in Trump’s first administration with an informant claiming he was a member of MS-13. Abrego Garcia’s attorney has denied that his client is a member of the gang, and a judge in Maryland has criticized the evidence used to support that allegation.

On April 16, Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on social media a link to documents about Abrego Garcia.

One was a Prince George’s County Police Department report stating that “officers contacted a past proven and reliable source of information, who advised Kilmar Armando Abrego-Garcia is an active member of MS-13 with the Westerns clique.” The 2019 report added that Abrego Garcia was seen wearing apparel associated with “Hispanic gang culture.”

“The confidential source further advised that he is the rank of ‘Chequeo’ with the moniker of ‘Chele,’” it said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.