Judge Denies Gov’t Bid to Keep Kilmar Abrego Garcia in Jail – But He Still Won’t Go Free
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana.
On Sunday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes denied the government’s motion to keep El Salvador citizen Kilmar Abrego Garcia in custody until his trial.
However, although many are characterizing the judge’s decision as a major blow to the administration of President Donald Trump on this issue, as the AP and other outlets note, it won’t actually result in Abrego Garcia walking free until the trial starts. Instead, they report, ICE plans to immediately pick him up and possibly deport him again.
That likely detention was also anticipated and discussed repeatedly in the Judge’s 51-page ruling Sunday.
While U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes’ on Sunday denied the government’s motion to detain Abrego Garcia, she acknowledged that if released, “there is no suggestion that the action taken by the government will be anything other than detaining him in ICE custody pending further removal proceedings.”
The AP reports:
In a ruling on Sunday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes denied the U.S. government’s motion to keep Abrego Garcia in detention before his trial. She scheduled a hearing for Wednesday to discuss the conditions of his release.
The U.S. government has already filed a motion to appeal the judge’s decision and is asking the judge to stay her impending release order.
Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty on June 13 to smuggling charges that his attorneys have characterized as an attempt to justify his mistaken deportation in March to a notorious prison in El Salvador after the fact. That hearing was the first chance the Maryland construction worker had in a U.S. courtroom to answer the Trump administration’s allegations.
Founder and editor-in-chief All Rise News Adam Klasfeld detailed some of what’s in the “devastating ruling” that “torches” the government’s case.
Throughout the ruling, Holmes repeatedly described the government’s evidence as “unreliable.” The Trump administration’s allegations largely rested on the claims of two cooperating witnesses. Holmes also expressed skepticism of the government’s claim that Abrego belonged to the gang MS-13.
“The government alleges that Abrego is a long-time, well-known member of MS-13, which the Court would expect to be reflected in a criminal history, perhaps even of the kind of violent crimes and other criminal activity the government describes as typically associated with MS-13 gang membership,” she wrote. “But Abrego has no reported criminal history of any kind. And his reputed gang membership is contradicted by the government’s own evidence as discussed above.”
Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported to El Salvador earlier this year when the Trump administration acted under the Alien Enemies Act and sent hundreds of people in the country illegally to the nation, where they were imprisoned. Abrego Garcia, who was here illegally but granted permission to remain by another judge, was eventually ordered to be returned to the U.S., where he now faces charges of human smuggling.
