WHAT HAPPENED: Kilmar Abrego Garcia, charged with human smuggling in Tennessee, was ordered released after a judge questioned the strength of the government’s allegations against him.

WHO WAS INVOLVED: Kilmar Abrego Garcia, federal prosecutors, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents.

WHEN & WHERE: The charges stem from incidents between 2016 and 2025, with recent hearings held in Nashville, Tennessee.

IMPACT: Abrego Garcia faces potential deportation, with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) expected to detain him as an illegal alien if he is released from jail.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant and alleged MS-13 gang member, has been ordered released pending trial after a federal judge called into question the strength of the Trump administration’s human smuggling charges against him. On Sunday, the U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes denied a request from federal prosecutors to keep Abrego Garcia in jail until trial, with the conditions of his release set to be established at a court hearing on Wednesday. However, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has a detainer against him as an illegal alien, so it is likely he will be taken back into custody by them immediately.

After initially being deported to his home country of El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States after protracted lawfare efforts spearheaded by Democrats who contend his deportation violated a 2019 immigration judge ruling, which ordered him removed from the United States but stipulated that he could not be returned to El Salvador, specifically. At the time, attorneys for the illegal alien had convinced the immigration court that he potentially faced violent retribution from a rival Salvadoran gang if he were to return home. Subsequently, Abrego Garcia was never removed by the former Biden government and instead allowed to remain in the United States. In 2021, he was he subject of a protective order filed by his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, who alleged that he had beaten her.

The federal judge’s determination not to hold Abrego Garcia due to the supposed weakness of the government’s case—as well as an assertion that the Salvadoran nation may not be a member of MS-13—does not appear to conform with previous evidence. In the 2019 court order, the immigration judge found a preponderance of evidence indicated that Abrego Garcia was a member of the violent Salvadoran criminal gang. Additionally, footage of a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee strongly suggests that the Salvadoran illegal immigrant was materially involved in human smuggling, driving a modified vehicle which belonged to a human trafficker and was filled with migrants.

Body camera footage from the stop showed officers discussing suspicions of smuggling, with one officer stating, “He’s hauling these people for money.” A Homeland Security special agent testified that witnesses claimed Abrego Garcia earned over $100,000 annually from smuggling activities.

Federal prosecutors, who say witnesses have linked Abrego Garcia to the abuse of women and girls as well as firearms and narcotics trafficking, say they plan to appeal Judge Holmes’s decision to release the Salvadoran before his trial. Additionally, they informed the judge that if Abrego Garcia is released, he will immediately be detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with deportation proceedings promptly reinitiated against him.

The alleged MS-13 gang member could be deported to a country other than El Salvador, though such a move would likely only happen after a court battle.

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