NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) — A federal judge in Tennessee could decide on Wednesday whether to release Kilmar Ábrego García from custody to await his trial on human trafficking charges, a decision that could allow the Trump administration to attempt a second deportation of the Maryland-based construction worker.
Justice Department lawyers have said that ICE will detain Ábrego García if he is released. ICE officials have said they will begin deportation proceedings against the Salvadoran and may try to send him to a third country such as Mexico or South Sudan.
Ábrego García became a focal point in Republican President Donald Trump’s immigration policies when he was misdeported to his homeland of El Salvador in March. That expulsion violated a 2019 order from a federal immigration judge that barred deporting Ábrego García to El Salvador because he likely faces violence threats from gangs there.
The Trump administration contends that Ábrego García belonged to the MS-13 gang, though he has not been charged and he denies the accusation. Facing mounting pressure and a Supreme Court order, the Trump administration returned Ábrego García to the United States last month to face the trafficking charges, which his lawyers have labeled “absurd.”
U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr. scheduled a Nashville hearing to consider whether Ábrego García should be released from jail to await his trial.
Waverly will review last month’s order by federal Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville to release Ábrego García. Holmes found that Ábrego García did not pose a flight risk or a danger to the community and set several conditions for his release, including wearing an ankle monitor and living with his brother in Maryland.
Crenshaw scheduled Wednesday’s hearing after prosecutors filed a motion to revoke Holmes’s release order. The prosecutors argued that Ábrego García could flee and poses a danger to the community.
Holmes has kept Ábrego García in jail at the request of his lawyers due to concerns that the Trump administration might attempt to deport him upon release. The lawyers asked Holmes to keep him detained until the Wednesday hearing before Crenshaw to review her release order.
The trafficking case stems from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding, during which Ábrego García was driving a vehicle with nine passengers. Police in Tennessee suspected human trafficking, but he was allowed to continue on his way.
Ábrego García lived and worked in Maryland for more than a decade, building homes and starting a family. His wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, a United States citizen, sued the Trump administration in a federal court in Maryland over her husband’s wrongful deportation in March, while trying to prevent any renewed attempt to remove him.
Ábrego García’s lawyers have asked U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland to order the government to send him to Maryland if he is released in Tennessee, a request meant to prevent his deportation before the trial.
In court Friday, Ábrego García’s attorneys also asked for at least a 72-hour hold to prevent immediate deportation. Attorney Andrew Rossman said it was a “critical fundamental protection” necessary to prevent a potential blatant violation of due process rights.
Xinis did not issue a ruling from the bench on Friday, but she said she would issue an order ahead of Wednesday’s hearing before Crenshaw.
If Ábrego García is released under ICE custody, his lawyers have pledged to challenge the deportation efforts within the U.S. immigration court system, which is part of the Justice Department.
