A magistrate judge on Wednesday paused Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s release from federal custody, shortly after a separate judge ruled that the man, who was mistakenly deported in March to El Salvador, should be released while he awaits trial on human smuggling charges.
Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in the Middle District of Tennessee ordered Abrego’s release from federal custody paused for 30 days, or until further court order.
“Abrego shall therefore remain in the custody of the United States Marshal pending further order,” she wrote.
The pause, which was asked for by both parties, will allow the government the opportunity to appeal, and Abrego’s legal team the chance to seek further relief.
It followed back-to-back rulings from U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw in Nashville, Tennessee, and Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland that ordered Abrego’s release and blocked his detention by immigration authorities in Tennessee.
Crenshaw’s order denied the Trump administration’s motion to block Abrego’s release, writing that the government “fails to provide any evidence that there is something in Abrego’s history, or his exhibited characteristics, that warrants detention.”
“The pieces of evidence the Government cites to, taken alone or together, warrant a finding that Abrego is, at best, a low risk of nonappearance,” Crenshaw wrote. “The Court agrees with Abrego that the nature of the crimes he is accused of do not, on their own, fall within the categories of crimes Congress specifically enumerated as warranting a presumption of detention.”
Minutes after Crenshaw’s order, Xinis issued an order blocking the government from taking Garcia into immigration custody in Tennessee.
At recent hearings for Abrego’s case, Xinis had expressed concern that Abrego would be immediately deported if released from federal custody.
“The Court shares Plaintiffs’ ongoing concern that, absent meaningful safeguards, Defendants may once again remove Abrego Garcia from the United States without having restored him to the status quo ante and without due process,” Xinis wrote in Wednesday’s order.
She also ruled the government must restore Abrego to ICE supervision in Baltimore and, if third-country removal proceedings are initiated, the government must provide Abrego and his counsel 72 “business hours” notice of the intended third country.
Abrego’s deportation has generated national headlines for months, amid the Trump administration’s broader push to reshape immigration policy in the United States.
The 29-year-old was deported to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador in March, in what the government called an “administrative error.” His deportation was in direct violation of a judge’s order in 2019 that was issued to prevent Abrego’s deportation to El Salvador, where he was born and claimed to have been in danger of gang violence.
Abrego was brought back to the United States last month after months of legal back-and-forth between his defense and the federal government.
Upon his return, he was immediately charged with two federal felonies in Federal District Court in Nashville: conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal aliens for financial gain and unlawful transportation of illegal aliens for financial gain.
Abrego has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
For months, the Trump administration has repeatedly accused Abrego of being a violent member of an international crime gang, MS-13, which Abrego’s attorneys and family members have denied.
Crenshaw was not convinced by the administration’s assertion. “Based on the record before it, for the Court to find that Abrego is member of or in affiliation with MS-13, it would have to make so many inferences from the Government’s proffered evidence in its favor that such conclusion would border on fanciful.”
On Tuesday, Abrego’s attorneys asked Crenshaw to order members of the Trump administration to stop commenting on the case.
Abrego’s attorneys pointed to a Nashville news conference held last week, where Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem referred to Abrego as a “horrible human being.”
“He has a lifetime history of trafficking individuals and of taking advantage of minors, soliciting pornography from them, nude photos of them, abusing his wife, abusing other illegals, aliens that were in this country, women that were under his care while he was trafficking them,” Noem said. “He’s a horrible human being and a monster, and he should never be released free.”
On Wednesday, Crenshaw wrote that the Trump administration “fails to show by a preponderance of the evidence — let alone clear and convincing evidence — that Abrego is such a danger to others or the community that he such concerns cannot be mitigated by conditions of release.”
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