Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia again after a federal judge releases him.
Abrego Garcia’s case garnered national attention when the Trump administration deported him to El Salvador earlier this year. Critics argued that the administration did not provide him, or the other deportees, with proper due process before removing them.
Abrego Garcia was residing in Maryland after having entered the country illegally in 2012. A judge later granted a withholding of removal order shielding him from deportation to his home country because he feared violence from gangs in El Salvador.
Federal immigration officials indicated that they will deport Abrego Garcia to an unidentified “third country” after his release, NOTUS reported.
A Justice Department lawyer revealed new details about the administration’s intentions in federal court Thursday afternoon when facing questions from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who has spent months demanding the government return Abrego Garcia and explain how and why it deported him in the first place.
After Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem vowed that Abrego Garcia would “never return” to the U.S., he was brought back to the United States to face criminal charges in Tennessee.
But now that the magistrate and district judge in Tennessee have issued rulings indicating that Abrego Garcia could be released pending trial, Xinis, who presides in Maryland, wanted to explore whether Abrego Garcia could be brought closer to home.
“Our plan is that he will be taken into ICE custody and removal proceedings will be initiated,” Jonathan Guynn, a deputy assistant attorney general at the DOJ’s civil division, told the court on Thursday.
“To El Salvador or a third country?” Xinis asked.
“To a third country is my understanding,” he responded.
But when the DOJ lawyer clarified that “there’s no timeline for these specific proceedings,” Xinis pressed further.
“So it can happen in 30 seconds or 30 days or 30 months?” she asked, elaborating that the timeline could affect how quickly she intends to step in.
The White House returned Garcia to the United States on June 7 to face federal charges for human smuggling. The judge ruled that he had a right to be free while awaiting his trial. However, on Wednesday, she kept him in custody because she believed the administration would try to deport him again once he was released.
Garcia’s family asked the judge overseeing their lawsuit against the federal government to transport him to Maryland. “If this Court does not act swiftly, then the Government is likely to whisk Abrego Garcia away to some place far from Maryland,” his attorneys argued in their filing. The suspect pleaded not guilty to the charges.