A federal magistrate judge delivered a blow to the Trump administration on Sunday as she ruled that wrongly deported Maryland immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia cannot be detained on smuggling charges because the government failed to show he was a flight risk, among other reasons.
His release is still unlikely, however, as the government has other tools at its disposal to keep him behind bars.
Abrego Garcia, who is married to a U.S. citizen, was returned to the United States earlier this month from El Salvador, where he was wrongly flown in March with more than 200 other men bound for a notoriously brutal prison.
Upon his return, he faced a two-count indictment for allegedly transporting unauthorized migrants across U.S. state borders.
The charges stem from a 2022 Tennessee traffic stop in which law enforcement allegedly found nine other people in a Chevy Suburban that Abrego Garcia was driving. Prosecutors claimed that a license plate scanner picked up the SUV’s plate in Texas, where the passengers had allegedly boarded the vehicle; Abrego Garcia had supposedly told Tennessee law enforcement that he was headed to Maryland from the St. Louis area.
In her 51-page ruling, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes said that federal prosecutors had not met their burden to continue detaining Abrego Garcia on the smuggling charges. Holmes said they had not shown that any of the people involved was a minor, that Abrego Garcia was a flight risk, or that he would try to interfere with the integrity of the judicial process. She also repeatedly cast doubt on the strength of the government’s evidence.
But Holmes also acknowledged that Abrego Garcia was not likely to be released anytime soon.
“Perhaps the sole circumstance about which the government and Abrego may agree in this case is the likelihood that Abrego will remain in custody regardless of the outcome of the issues raised in the government’s motion for detention,” the judge wrote.
“Either Abrego will remain in the custody of the Attorney General or her designee pending trial if detained under the Bail Reform Act,” she went on, “or he will likely remain in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (‘ICE’) custody subject to anticipated removal proceedings that are outside the jurisdiction of this Court.”
Holmes directed U.S. marshals to ensure Abrego Garcia is present for a court hearing on Wednesday.
Abrego Garcia is originally from El Salvador, but a U.S. judge ruled he could not be removed there due to the possibility that he would face persecution. He was flown there anyway earlier this year as President Donald Trump attempted to make good on his campaign promise to initiate a campaign of mass deportations.
Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi and others in the administration alleged that Abrego Garcia was a member of the gang MS-13, although there is scant evidence this is true. They repeatedly taunted critics by saying he would “never” be allowed back in the United States; he was returned by June 6.