5 days ago
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A judge on Sunday ordered the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, pending trial. Abrego Garcia is an illegal immigrant who was slated for deportation in 2019, was deported by the Trump administration earlier this year, and was then extradited back to the United States to stand trial for human trafficking in Tennessee.
Abrego Garcia is alleged to have engaged in human trafficking operations from 2015-16 while he was a member of the MS-13 gang. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in June that "On May 21, a grand jury in the Middle District of Tennessee returned a sealed indictment charging Abrego Garcia with alien smuggling and conspiracy to commit alien smuggling in violation of Title 8, USC, 1324." He reportedly earned over $100,000 annually from this activity.
"The grand jury found that over the past 9 years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring. They found this was his full-time job, not a contractor. He was a smuggler of humans and children and women. He made over 100 trips the grand jury found smuggling people throughout our country," Bondi added.
He stood for a detention hearing on July 13 at which time Immigration and Customs Enforcement told the court that should Abrego Garcia be freed on bail pending his criminal trial he would be picked up and deported, per the AP.
Abrego Garcia has become a cause célèbre for Democrats who see his deportation as unjust, despite his having been reported by his wife for domestic abuse, the allegations of human trafficking, and his status as an illegal immigrant who has no legal right to be in the United States. Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador for a stay in President Nayib Bukele's maximum security CECOT prison. The Democrats insisted on referring to him as a "Maryland dad" in order to gin up sympathy for his deportation.
US Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes scheduled a hearing for Wednesday of this week during which the conditions of Abrego Garcia's release will be discussed—a move the Trump administration is already appealing. Her claim was that the DOJ has not proven that Abrego Garcia is a flight risk, that he would interfere with proceedings, or that he poses a danger to the community. His wife twice went to police with allegations of domestic abuse.
"Overall, the Court cannot find from the evidence presented that Abrego’s release clearly and convincingly poses an irremediable danger to other persons or to the community," Holmes said.
Holmes invoked ICE in her ruling, saying her order to release him is "little more than an academic exercise" because ICE has already promised to detain him should she release the suspected human trafficker back onto the streets. Holmes went on to say that everyone is entitled to "a full and fair determination of whether he must remain in federal custody pending trial."
At the time he was slated for deportation in 2019, a court said Abrego Garcia should not be returned to his home country of El Salvador due to concerns of gang violence. Since that time, however, El Salvador has become a shockingly safe country under Bukele's leadership.
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