In defeat for Trump administration, Kilmar Abrego Garcia to be released from custody within 30 days
Tennessee Lookout
Kathryn Millwee holds a poster of Kilmar Abrego Garcia at the Fred Thompson Federal Courthouse in Nashville, Tennessee.
Photograph by John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout ©2025
A federal judge in Nashville ruled Wednesday that Kilmar Abrego Garcia must be released from criminal custody in Tennessee pending trial on human smuggling charges.
The order came shortly after a Maryland court, in a separate case, blocked Immigration and Customs Enforcement from immediately taking Abrego into custody once released in Tennessee.
The twin court orders represent a victory for Abrego and his attorneys, who have been fighting for his right to pretrial release in Tennessee while also seeking legal safeguards to prevent Trump administration officials from following through on threats to send him to a “third country.”
The timing of Abrego’s physical release from custody remains unknown.
Before Wednesday’s rulings, both federal prosecutors and Abrego’s attorneys in the Tennessee case preemptively sought a 30-day delay if the court granted his release. The delay, they said, was intended to prevent Trump administration officials from immediately dispatching Abrego to an unnamed country.
A federal magistrate judge late Wednesday granted their 30-day-delay request.
“Issuance of the order directing Abrego’s release with conditions is STAYED for 30 days, subject to further order,” federal Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes ruled.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia to remain jailed in Tennessee as judge weighs arguments on release
“Abrego shall therefore remain in the custody of the United States Marshal pending further order, as previously directed,” she wrote. U.S. Marshals oversee pre-trial detainees in federal cases.
Attorneys for Abrego did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the rulings.
Abrego, a Maryland construction worker, was mistakenly sent to a Salvadoran prison in March after a routine traffic stop led to his detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Originally from El Salvador, Abrego entered the U.S. illegally more than a decade ago but in 2019 secured an order from an immigration judge that barred his deportation to his home country where, he said, he feared gang violence.
Abrego’s mistaken deportation to a notorious Salvadoran prison served to highlight the lack of due process protections for immigrants caught up in the Trump administration’s mass immigration crackdowns. A federal prosecutor who acknowledged Abrego was deported in error was subsequently fired and has since filed a whistleblower complaint.
Trump administration officials refused to return Abrego to the United States for months, even after the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling ordering the administration to facilitate his return.
It was only after intense public interest in his case that the Tennessee human smuggling charges were filed against Abrego in June.
The charges are linked to a 2022 traffic stop that prosecutors now say intercepted Abrego’s job chauffeuring immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally to points around the country.
Abrego has entered not guilty pleas to the two human smuggling charges.
Separately, his attorneys are seeking a court order barring Trump administration officials from publicly discussing his case after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called Abrego a “monster” and “horrible human being” who “should never be released free.”
Noem made the remarks July 18 at a Homeland Security field office in Nashville where, she said, she was highlighting the “worst of the worst” immigrants who had committed crimes.
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“These comments — made by a sitting cabinet secretary (and one of the Nation’s highest ranking law enforcement officials) in this District, mere miles from the courthouse where Mr. Abrego’s case is pending — are precisely of the type that are most likely to prejudice Mr. Abrego’s right to a fair trial,” Abrego’s attorneys wrote.
“Secretary Noem assailed Mr. Abrego’s character and reputation, including with verbal insults and allegations that are irrelevant to the offenses charged in the indictment and almost certainly inadmissible at trial.”
Attorneys for Abrego noted they had formally requested a retraction of the remarks on July 21 but had received no response.
Abrego’s lawyers are seeking a court order that clarifies that the Department of Homeland Security and other government officials are barred by standing court rules from discussing the case publicly. Federal prosecutors have not yet filed a reply to their petition.
Abrego is represented by New York-based Hecker Fink and Nashville law firm Sherrard Roe Voight & Harbison.