Kilmar Abrego Garcia is free’ | Wrongfully deported mans, wife thanks Americans for their support

WASHINGTON — Kilmar Abrego Garcia was released from custody in Tennessee on Friday, allowing him to return home to Maryland while he faces federal charges of human smuggling and likely efforts by the Trump administration to deport him.”Today, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is free the wife thanked Americans for their support and love,” his attorney, Sean Hecker, told WUSA9. “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.

Abrego Garcia’s grant of relative freedom, his first since he was unlawfully deported to El Salvador in March in violation of an immigration judge’s order, may be brief. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have said the agency will seek to swiftly detain and begin removal proceedings to a third, as-yet-unidentified country once Abrego Garcia is no longer in the custody of U.S. Marshals.Last month, a federal judge in Maryland barred ICE from immediately re-arresting Abrego Garcia. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered him returned to the same supervision conditions he was under prior to his deportation in March. She also ordered ICE to provide at least 72 hours’ notice before initiating any new efforts to remove Abrego Garcia from the country.What’s next?After being released Friday, Abrego Garcia will have 48 hours to return to Maryland before he has to report for pre-trial supervision. A private security firm hired by his legal team will help bring him back from Tennessee to Maryland.

After being released Friday, Abrego Garcia will have 48 hours to return to Maryland before he has to report for pre-trial supervision. A private security firm hired by his legal team will help bring him back from Tennessee to Maryland.

There, his legal fights will continue on two fronts. Earlier this week, attorneys from the New York law firm Hecker Fink representing Abrego Garcia in his criminal case filed a motion to dismiss for vindictive prosecution. The evidence of that, they say, is clear — from a whistleblower complaint filed by former Justice Department lawyer Erez Reuveni, who claims he was fired after refusing to file a misleading brief in the case, to unsubstantiated but highly publicized claims that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13.“This case results from the government’s concerted effort to punish him for having the audacity to fight back, rather than accept a brutal injustice,” his team wrote in the motion.Last month, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw warned attorneys to limit any extrajudicial statements about the case. The warning came after attorneys for Abrego Garcia highlighted repeated attacks against their client on social media by the Department of Homeland Security.