Kilmar Abrego Garcia was released from a Tennessee jail on Friday, more than five months after he was detained by ICE in Maryland, flown to a notoriously brutal prison in El Salvador and became a worldwide face of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
Abrego walked out of Putnam County Jail in Cookeville at about 2:05 p.m. CT. He awaits trial on federal human smuggling charges.
“Today, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is free,” attorney Sean Hecker said in a statement. “He is presently en route to his family in Maryland, after being unlawfully arrested and deported, and then imprisoned, all because of the government’s vindictive attack on a man who had the courage to fight back against the Administration’s continuing assault on the rule of law. He is grateful that his access to American courts has provided meaningful due process.”
News4 and Telemundo 44 were first to report he was detained on March 12 in College Park and deported under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act though his wife said he had protected status in the U.S.
Abrego’s release provides the closest thing to freedom he has felt since he was wrongfully deported. Abrego’s lawyers said in court filings Tuesday that a private security firm will take Abrego from Tennessee to Maryland when he’s freed.
But Abrego’s liberty before trial could be short-lived. ICE may detain him once he arrives in his adopted state of Maryland and could try to deport him again.
Depending on who’s telling his story, there are two very different versions of Abrego.
Trump and his administration cast him as an MS-13 gang member and a tireless smuggler of migrants across the country. Abrego’s attorneys portray him as a family man and construction worker who was arbitrarily deported and then vindictively charged to save political face.
As Abrego’s story takes yet another turn, here’s what to know:
‘Well-founded fear’
Abrego, 30, grew up in El Salvador and fled at 16 because a local gang extorted and terrorized his family, court records state. He traveled to Maryland, where his brother lives as a U.S. citizen, but was not authorized to stay.
Abrego found work in construction and met his future wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura. In 2018, he moved in with her and her two children after she became pregnant with his child. They lived in Prince George’s County, just outside Washington.
In March 2019, Abrego went to a Home Depot seeking work as a laborer when he and three other men were detained by local police, court records state. They were suspected of being in MS-13 based on tattoos and clothing.
A criminal informant told police that Abrego was in MS-13, court records state, but police did not charge him and turned him over to ICE.
A U.S. immigration judge denied Abrego’s subsequent asylum claim because more than a year had passed since his arrival. But the judge granted him protection from being deported back to El Salvador, determining that he had a “well-founded fear” of gang persecution there, court records state.
Abrego was released and placed under federal supervision. He received a federal work permit and checked in with ICE each year, his lawyers said. He joined a union and was employed full-time as a sheet metal apprentice.
‘Audacity to fight back’
In February, the Trump administration designated MS-13 as a foreign terrorist organization. In March, it deported Abrego to the prison in El Salvador, violating the U.S. immigration judge’s 2019 order.
Abrego later claimed in court documents that he was beaten and psychologically tortured, while El Salvador President Nayib Bukele denied the allegations.
The Trump administration described its violation of the immigration judge’s 2019 order as an administrative error. Trump and other officials also doubled down on claims Abrego was in MS-13.
Vasquez Sura filed a lawsuit to bring her husband back. Following mounting political pressure and a Supreme Court order, the Trump administration returned Abrego to the U.S. in early June. But it was to face the human smuggling charges.
The smuggling case stems from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding, during which Abrego was driving a vehicle with nine passengers. Police in Tennessee suspected human smuggling, but he was allowed to drive on and wasn’t charged with anything.
Abrego has pleaded not guilty to the smuggling charges filed in June. The case relies on the testimony of cooperating witnesses, some of whom have requested or received help with immigration and criminal matters, according to pre-trial testimony.
Abrego’s lawyers on Tuesday filed a rarely used motion to dismiss the case based on “vindictive and selective prosecution.”
“This case results from the government’s concerted effort to punish him for having the audacity to fight back,” his lawyers wrote.
The government’s response is due in court by Tuesday.
Deportation fears realized
U.S. Magistrate Barbara Holmes in Nashville ruled in June that Abrego has a right to be released from jail while he awaits trial, determining that he’s not a flight risk or danger to the community.
Holmes discussed at a court hearing conditions of release that would require Abrego to stay with his brother in Maryland. He would also have electronic monitoring and be placed on home detention.
But Abrego has remained in jail at his attorneys’ request for about 11 weeks over fears that ICE would immediately try to deport him. Those fears were confirmed in federal court in Maryland, where Abrego’s wife is suing the Trump administration.
Thomas Giles, an assistant director for ICE, testified last month that Abrego would be detained as soon as he’s freed. He added that Mexico or South Sudan may be willing to accept Abrego, but the Trump administration hadn’t decided on anything yet.
U.S. officials have argued that Abrego can be deported because he came to the U.S. illegally and because a U.S. immigration judge deemed him eligible for expulsion in 2019, just not to his native El Salvador.
Judge provides some protections
Despite the fears of deportation, Abrego’s attorneys have asked Holmes to finally release him from jail in Tennessee. A stay of release that they had requested expires Friday.
In a filing Thursday, Holmes wrote that she will enter an order regarding Abrego’s pretrial release on conditions. The order was not published as of Thursday afternoon.
Abrego’s expected release comes after a federal judge in Maryland provided some protections for him.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who is overseeing the lawsuit, has prohibited ICE from immediately detaining Abrego when he’s released in Tennessee.
In a late July order, Xinis required that any removal proceedings begin in Baltimore. That’s where they should have begun when the Trump administration wrongfully deported him to El Salvador, Xinis wrote.
Xinis also ordered that ICE provide three business days notice if it intends to initiate removal proceedings. The time will give Abrego and his attorneys the opportunity to raise any credible fears of persecution or torture in the country to which ICE plans to send him.
Xinis wrote that the Trump administration has “done little to assure the Court that absent intervention, Abrego’s due process rights will be protected.”
If ICE wanted to return him to El Salvador, it would have to reopen his 2019 case before an immigration judge, Xinis wrote. And that would require formal notice and “an opportunity to be heard.”
Xinis acknowledged that Abrego may be ordered to appear in Baltimore for immigration proceedings, which “may or may not include lawful arrest, detention and eventual removal.
“So long as such actions are taken within the bounds of the Constitution and applicable statutes, this Court will have nothing further to say,” Xinis wrote.
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