Kilmar Abrego Garcia Asks Judge To Keep Him Detained To Avoid Snap Deportation

Just days after winning court-ordered release from criminal detention, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is pleading with a judge to keep him incarcerated — because of conflicting statements by the Trump administration about whether it will try to quickly deport him upon release.

“The irony of this request is not lost on anyone,” Abrego’s lawyers said in a five-page filingFriday asking to postpone his release from custody. “In a just world, he would not seek to prolong his detention further. And yet the government — a government that has, at all levels, told the American people that it is bringing Mr. Abrego back home to the United States to face ‘American justice’ — apparently has little interest in actually bringing this case to trial.”

The emergency motion is the latest twist for Abrego, who was illegally deported to El Salvador in March, despite a 2019 court order finding he could be targeted for violence by a local gang. The Trump administration resisted court orders to return him to the United States but agreed to bring him back earlier this month to face criminal human smuggling charges in Tennessee. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges.

A magistrate judge ordered Abrego’s release from pretrial detention on Sunday, concluding that the administration had failed to support claims that Abrego posed a danger or might flee his prosecution. Though he was widely expected to be immediately re-detained by immigration officials, the Justice Department began signaling that the administration might abruptly deport Abrego before his criminal case could go to trial.

The federal judge presiding over Abrego’s case expressed bewilderment Wednesday that the Justice Department appeared at odds with the Department of Homeland Security on the matter and suggested the administration coordinate its handling of the case.

But the matter plunged into further confusion Thursday after the Justice Department told another federal judge — Maryland-based U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis — that prosecutors expected Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to immediately launch proceedings to send Abrego to a “third country” — not his native El Salvador — with no firm timeline.

And on Thursday night, the White House contradicted the Justice Department, calling the claim that Abrego could be deported before trial — made by its own lawyers in court documents and oral arguments — “fake news.”