Abrego Garcia returns to Maryland after release from jail, awaits smuggling trial

Kilmar Abrego García, the Maryland man illegally deported to his native El Salvador, has been released while awaiting trial on human smuggling charges, his attorney said Friday, a blow to the Trump administration, which had promised that he would “never go free” in the United States again.

Federal officials obeyed a pair of court orders to release Abrego from jail in Tennessee, where he is accused of smuggling migrants based on a 2022 traffic stop in that state, and allow him to return to Maryland with orders to wear a GPS tracking device. He has pleaded not guilty in the criminal case.

“Today, Kilmar Abrego García is free,” Sean Hecker, his criminal defense lawyer, said in a statement. “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.”

Abrego’s release marks a major victory for the undocumented immigrant who has lived in Maryland for more than a decade with his wife and three children, all U.S. citizens. It is unclear how long his time in the United States will last, however. Another court has said immigration officers may seek to deport him to another country, with as little as three days’ notice.

At a June hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara D. Holmes imposed several conditions on Abrego’s release, including that he attend anger management classes and live at an address provided to the court. The judge also told him to avoid contact with members of the MS-13 gang, “if you know any.” Abrego’s lawyers and family have denied that he is a gang member.

On Friday, Holmes added that Abrego must check in with federal authorities in Maryland about his criminal case by 10 a.m. Monday. She also ordered the government to ensure Abrego has access to his lawyers if he is detained again for civil immigration proceedings.

The White House and Trump immigration and justice officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the release.

The release is the latest development in an odyssey that began more than five months ago when U.S. immigration officers, under pressure to accelerate deportations, sent him and nearly 300 other immigrants to a notorious prison for gang members in El Salvador. Multiple judges found that Abrego’s removal violated a 2019 court order forbidding his deportation to that country because gangs there had threatened to harm him.

The Trump administration has been in a lengthy tug-of-war with the federal courts ever since. Government lawyers described Abrego’s deportation as an “isolated error” but resisted rulings ordering his return. Even after the Supreme Court directed officials to facilitate his return, Attorney General Pamela Bondi said he was “not coming back to our country.” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in June that Abrego “will never go free on American soil.”

Democratic lawmakers and supporters cheered his release Friday.

“This is fantastic news and I am thrilled for Kilmar Abrego García!” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) wrote on social media. “The Trump administration must stop their unfounded investigations and let his family remain together.”

Despite those pledges, officials returned Abrego, 30, to the U.S. in June after securing an indictment against him in Tennessee over migrant smuggling. His attorneys have called the case a “vindictive” prosecution and asked a judge to dismiss the charges.

Holmes said that month that Abrego was eligible for release, finding that the government had failed to prove that he was a flight risk or a danger to the community. She noted that the smuggling charges are the first criminal allegations ever filed against Abrego.

But Abrego’s attorneys asked for a stay on his release after immigration officers repeatedly stated they would immediately detain him and try to deport him to another country such as Mexico or South Sudan, a nation on the brink of war. The order delaying his release expired Friday.

While U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could still try to remove him, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland has forbidden the agency from immediately detaining him. She said officers must give him at least 72 hours’ notice that they intend to deport him to a country other than his native El Salvador. That would give him a brief window to contest his removal in court. Xinis was the first federal judge to order the U.S. government to facilitate Abrego’s return to the United States.

A criminal trial on the migrant smuggling charges had been scheduled for January. If ICE follows through on its threats to deport Abrego, those charges would probably be dropped.

Since he is married to a U.S. citizen, Abrego could be a candidate for legal residency, though having that approved is likely to be a challenge under the Trump administration.

Administration officials have repeatedly characterized Abrego as an MS-13 gang member and a prolific human smuggler. His attorneys and family deny those accusations. The government has repeatedly noted that his wife twice filed for court protection from him in Maryland, accusing him of abuse, though in both cases she did not pursue the request past the initial filings.

His wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, said in an interview that Abrego was traumatized when immigration officers detained him for months in 2019, after a Prince George’s County police detective alleged Abrego was in the gang. The detective was later fired for misconduct in an unrelated case. No charges were filed against Abrego at the time.

Vasquez said the couple addressed their differences through counseling. In March, immigration officials detained Abrego again in Maryland after he picked up their youngest son, who is autistic and nonverbal, after work. Abrego was also helping Vasquez raise her two other children and working as a sheet-metal apprentice.

His wife has described the trauma of the family’s separation on TikTok, posting videos of their children’s birthday parties without their father and their last family outing, to a trampoline park.

She celebrated the release last month of Venezuelans transported to the Salvadoran prison along with Abrego in March.

But she said that her daughter asked for her father to come home for her birthday party last month and that it broke her heart to tell her he could not. She posted photos of the girl in a party dress and a toy “emotional support bear” named Kilmar.

Abrego’s family sued in Maryland to bring him back to the U.S., and his attorneys argue the Trump administration has put him in danger by making him the face of its mass deportation campaign. The lawyers said in a court filing that he and the other migrants sent to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center were severely beaten and forced to kneel for nine straight hours upon their arrival.