But Abrego Garcia's lawyers asked the same judge on Friday to delay his release. They're concerned U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will try to deport Abrego Garcia again before his trial. The judge is yet to respond to the unusual request.
Abrego Garcia's attorneys accused Trump administration officials of making contradictory statements about what they'll do.
Justice Department spokesman Chad Gilmartin told The Associated Press on Thursday that the department intends to try Abrego Garcia, stating that Abrego Garcia "will not walk free in our country again."
Hours earlier, Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn told a federal judge in Maryland that the U.S. plans to deport Abrego Garcia but said there was no timeline.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys on Friday cited Guynn’s comments as a reason to fear he would be deported “immediately.”
They told the judge in Tennessee that delaying his release will “allow time for the government to provide reliable information concerning its intentions.”
“The irony of this request is not lost on anyone,” Abrego Garcia's attorneys added.
Here's what to know about the case:
The smuggling charges
Abrego Garcia is charged with smuggling throughout the U.S. hundreds of people living in the country illegally, including children and members of MS-13, from 2016 to 2025.
The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding in Tennessee, during which he was driving a vehicle with nine passengers who didn't have any luggage.
Body camera footage shows a calm exchange between officers and Abrego Garcia. The officers discussed among themselves their suspicions of smuggling. One of the officers says, "He's hauling these people for money." Another says Abrego Garcia had $1,400 in an envelope.
Abrego Garcia was allowed to continue driving with only a warning.
A Department of Homeland Security special agent, Peter Joseph, testified against Abrego Garcia at a court hearing on June 13 in Nashville. Joseph said witnesses testified to a grand jury that they saw Abrego Garcia smuggling people, guns or drugs, and that he earned upward of $100,000 a year.
A not guilty plea
Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty at the June 13 hearing. His attorneys have characterized the case as an attempt by Trump's Republican administration to justify his mistaken deportation in March.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers told the judge that some government witnesses cooperated to get favors regarding their immigration status or criminal charges they were facing. Joseph, the special agent, acknowledged in testimony that one witness was living in the U.S. illegally with a criminal record and is now getting preferred status.
Casting doubt on the charges, an assistant federal public defender, Richard Tennent, noted that a witness claimed that Abrego Garcia would drive from Maryland to Houston — a 1,400-mile (2,250-kilometer) trip taking about 24 hours — two or three times per week.
Judge rules for release
U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville wrote in a ruling Sunday that federal prosecutors failed to show that Abrego Garcia was a flight risk or a danger to the community. During a hearing Wednesday, Holmes set conditions for Abrego Garcia’s release, including that he live with his brother in Maryland.
But she ultimately kept Abrego Garcia in custody for at least a couple more days over concerns that ICE would deport him. The agency has a detainer to take him into custody.
Acting U.S. Attorney Rob McGuire has said in court and in filings that one of the reasons he wants Abrego Garcia to stay in jail is to ensure that he remains in the country and isn’t deported.
McGuire told the judge Wednesday that he would do “the best I can” to secure the cooperation of the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE. But the prosecutor noted: “That’s a separate agency with separate leadership and separate directions. I will coordinate, but I can’t tell them what to do.”
Holmes ordered Abrego Garcia's lawyers and the prosecutors to file briefs on the matter of his potential deportation.
Fears of deportation
Concerns continued to grow that Abrego Garcia could be deported if he were released.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers filed an emergency request Thursday to a federal judge in Maryland to order the government to take Abrego Garcia to that state upon release, an arrangement that would prevent his deportation before trial.
Abrego Garcia lived and worked as a construction worker in Maryland with his American wife and children for more than a decade before his mistaken deportation in March. His wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, is suing the Trump administration over his deportation in the Maryland federal court where Abrego Garcia’s attorneys filed their emergency request on Thursday.
“We have concerns that the government may try to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia quickly over the weekend,” one of his attorneys, Jonathan Cooper, told U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland, during a conference call Thursday afternoon.
Guynn, the Justice Department attorney, was on the same call and acknowledged plans to deport Abrego Garcia. He said there was no timeline.
Gilmartin, the DOJ spokesman, said later that day that the department intended to keep Abrego Garcia in the U.S. for trial.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson also posted on X that Abrego Garcia "will face the full force of the American justice system — including serving time in American prison.”
Unconvinced that he would remain in the U.S. for trial, Abrego Garcia's attorneys filed their emergency request with the judge in Tennessee Friday morning.
Deportation to El Salvador
Abrego Garcia grew up in El Salvador's capital, San Salvador, and helped his family run a business selling pupusas, tortilla pouches filled with cheese, beans or pork.
In 2011, the year he turned 16, he fled a local gang that extorted and terrorized his family, court records state. He traveled illegally to Maryland, where his brother already lived as a U.S. citizen.
Abrego Garcia found work in construction and began a relationship with 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 Garcia went to a Home Depot seeking work as a laborer when he and three other men were detained by local police, court records say. They were suspected of being in MS-13 based on tattoos and clothing.
A criminal informant told police that Abrego Garcia was in MS-13, court records state, but police did not charge him and turned him over to ICE.
Abrego Garcia then went before a U.S. immigration judge and sought asylum, which was denied. The judge, however, granted him protection from being deported back to El Salvador.
The judge said Abrego Garcia had demonstrated a “well-founded fear” of gang persecution there, court records state. He was released.
Abrego Garcia checked in with ICE yearly while Homeland Security issued him a work permit, his attorneys said. He joined a union and was employed full-time as a sheet metal apprentice.
In February, the Trump administration designated MS-13 as a foreign terrorist organization, and in March, it deported Abrego Garcia to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
The administration described its violation of the immigration judge's 2019 order as an administrative error. Trump and other officials doubled down on claims Abrego Garcia was in MS-13.
Facing mounting pressure and a Supreme Court order, the Trump administration returned him this month to face the smuggling charges, which Abrego Garcia’s attorneys characterized as an attempt to justify his erroneous deportation.
___
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP