As Kilmar Abrego Garcia seeks to be released from U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) custody, as he is currently being held in Tennessee while awaiting his federal human smuggling trial, his defense attorneys on Sunday filed a motion that requests U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw keep their client incarcerated under DOJ supervision for another month.
The motion, which Abrego Garcia’s defense attorneys said was filed without opposition from DOJ prosecutors, asks Crenshaw to delay his upcoming decision on whether to release Abrego Garcia by 30 days, citing the likelihood the illegal immigrant from El Salvador will be detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and deported if released from DOJ custody.
Abrego Garcia’s defense attorneys wrote, “We have been advised by the government that if the Court denies the government’s motion for revocation, the defendant would be transferred” to U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) custody, which would “begin removal proceedings.”
It was filed just days after Crenshaw noted during his July 16 hearing that precedent should preclude him from considering whether Abrego Garcia will be deported, with one reporter revealing the judge cautioned Abrego Garcia’s defense attorney, “he can’t go down that rabbit hole, but if he could, he may speculate someone would want to leave to avoid,” being wrongly deported to El Salvador.
Abrego Garcia has maintained he was wrongly deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration in March despite the 2019 final deportation order issued for Abrego Garcia stating that he was only precluded from deportation to Guatemala, and not El Salvador. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that the Trump administration must “facilitate” his return to the United States.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and the DOJ have argued this requirement was completed on June 6, when the government unsealed its indictment against Abrego Garcia, accusing him of spending nearly a decade embroiled in a human smuggling ring, and returned him to Tennessee.
Despite DOJ attorneys arguing Abrego Garcia’s lawsuit over the March deportation is now irrelevant, his immigration attorneys have asked U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis to issue an order restricting ICE from detaining Abrego Garcia anywhere but Maryland.
The judge indicated earlier this month that a ruling would be forthcoming before Crenshaw’s hearing, but Xinis has yet to release an opinion nearly one week later.
While awaiting the decision, DOJ attorneys submitted a filing that insists Xinis lacks the authority to issue wide-ranging orders about where Abrego Garcia will be detained.
The Tennessee Star was the first outlet to report that Abrego Garcia was stopped by the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) in November 2022, when a THP spokesman told The Star that Abrego Garcia was released at the instruction of the “Biden-era FBI.” DHS has additionally confirmed troopers suspected Abrego Garcia of human trafficking.
Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty to the smuggling charges after he was returned to Tennessee. His trial is scheduled for January 2026.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kilmar Abrego Garcia” by Murray Osorio PLLC.
What a waste of time and taxpayer dollars for someone who has already been ordered to be deported – before all of this latest baloney started. Send him to someplace other than El Salvador and get it over with.