Left: Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who was living in Maryland and deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration, speaks in a hotel restaurant in San Salvador, El Salvador, Thursday, April 17, 2025 (Press Office Sen. Van Hollen, via AP). Right: President Donald Trump speaks with reporters upon arriving at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J., Friday, June 20, 2025 (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta).
In a stunning about-face, the Trump administration is now imploring a federal judge not to release Kilmar Abrego Garcia to immigration authorities and have him set up on a fast track to deportation, arguing such an action would hurt its criminal case against him.
The Maryland man — who has become a figurehead of the national immigration debate — stands accused of federal migrant smuggling charges in Tennessee. On Sunday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes ordered him to be freed on bond as he awaits trial — though she admitted such a ruling was more procedural than anything, as upon his release from the Justice Department”s custody, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was likely to take him in.
“[I]t is an accepted fact in this case that if the Defendant is released from U.S. Marshals Custody, he will not be released at liberty but rather, into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” the DOJ wrote in a Tuesday filing. This would “poses potentially irreparable problems for the prosecution” and therefore the general public, the government argues.
“Should this Court not order a stay, and the Defendant is moved to ICE custody and deported from the United States, the prosecution would lose the meaningful opportunity to try its case,” the DOJ adds.
While the DOJ acknowledged any such deportation would not take place instantaneously, “these immigration proceedings exist as real, potential, substantial and irreparable harm to the United States.”
The request marks a shocking departure from the administration’s erstwhile stance — that Abrego Garcia, though improperly deported to El Salvador specifically, was rightfully expelled from the U.S. The federal government has painted him as a violent criminal with gang ties, and, while he was in Salvadoran custody, argued that it was powerless to facilitate his return.
Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, and his attorneys have decried the government’s actions, arguing they have “flouted rather than followed” orders from both the Nashville-based federal court as well as the Supreme Court.
Holmes excoriated prosecutors’ “insufficient” evidence in her release order on Sunday, saying the administration failed to show Abrego Garcia was a flight risk or danger to the community since he was returned to the U.S. earlier this month.
The DOJ soon after filed a motion for a stay, and then, on Tuesday, said it stands by its argument that the Maryland man is “a serious risk of flight” because “he would have a monumental incentive to flee: to avoid deportation to El Salvador.”
“Should the Defendant be at liberty and successfully flee, the Government’s interest in bringing him to trial will be irreparably injured,” the DOJ added. “The United States cannot try a fugitive.”
The DOJ, in arguing ICE — under the authority of the Department of Homeland Security — could deport Abrego Garcia, appears to suggest the two agencies would not be in consultation, a surprising concept given how the Trump administration has touted President Donald Trump’s authority over all executive department agencies.
“Should the Defendant be deported by another agency following what they believe to be relevant federal law and agency guidance, the public would be deprived of a resolution of the charges,” the DOJ wrote on Tuesday. “It is worth this Court staying the release order for a period of weeks to grant the public a greater chance of that evidence-based, meaningful resolution of these charges.”
A hearing on the matter of Abrego Garcia’s release is set to take place in the Nashville federal court at 3 p.m. on Wednesday.
