Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the migrant who was wrongly deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration and brought back to the U.S. to face criminal charges, on Wednesday won release from jail and a temporary block on any effort to deport him again.
U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw in Nashville upheld a magistrate judge’s ruling that prosecutors had not shown sufficient evidence that Abrego Garcia posed a public safety threat or was a flight risk to justify his continued detention ahead of trial on human smuggling charges.
President Donald Trump’s administration had previously said if Abrego Garcia is freed from criminal custody, he will immediately be taken into immigration detention and face a second deportation to a country other than El Salvador.
In a simultaneous ruling, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland, who is overseeing a civil lawsuit brought by Abrego Garcia, put a three-day pause on any further attempt by the Trump administration to deport Abrego Garcia to give his lawyers the chance to contest his removal.
Neither the Justice Department nor the Department of Homeland Security immediately responded to requests for comment.
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Abrego Garcia, 29, a Salvadoran migrant who had been living in Maryland, was deported and imprisoned in El Salvador in March despite a 2019 judicial ruling that he could not be sent there because of a risk of gang persecution.
Abrego Garcia’s case has drawn widespread attention as the Trump administration moves aggressively to deport millions living illegally in the U.S., prompting criticism that the government is infringing on legal rights.
The Trump administration brought Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. in June after securing an indictment accusing him of taking part in a smuggling ring as part of the MS-13 gang to transport migrants living in the country illegally.
Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have accused the Trump administration of bringing the charges to cover up violations of his rights. He has denied any gang ties.
Federal prosecutors sought to convince two different judges to order Abrego Garcia be detained while awaiting a trial. They alleged that Abrego Garcia used children as cover during smuggling trips, faced complaints that he mistreated female passengers and lied about his activities when stopped by police in 2022.
Lawyers for Abrego Garcia have argued that alleged co-conspirators cooperating with prosecutors cannot be trusted because they are seeking relief from their own criminal charges and deportations. The defence has argued that witnesses gave inconsistent statements to investigators, including about the government’s core allegation that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang.