Magistrate Judge Denies DOJ Request to Hold Kilmar Abrego Garcia in Jail, Signals Likely Release to ICE Facility

June 22, 2025 Tom Pappert

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara D. Holmes on Sunday ruled against the Department of Justice (DOJ) request for a detention hearing to determine whether Kilmar Abrego Garcia will remain in DOJ custody while awaiting trial, and instead indicated the alleged illegal immigrant smugglerwould be transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody during an upcoming hearing.

Holmes ruled against the DOJ request to keep Abrego Garcia in its custody, claiming prosecutors failed to demonstrate the alleged human smuggler, who purportedly admitted to illegally entering the United States in March 2012, posed a flight risk.
Despite investigators testifying that Abrego Garcia often smuggled minor children, including his own, citing his alleged co-conspirators, Holmes similarly claimed prosecutors failed to demonstrate that his crimes involve minor victims.

Holmes also pointed to Abrego Garcia’s lack of criminal history and family ties to Maryland, but ostensibly did not consider the 2019 arrest, when he was allegedly in the presence of known gang members, which preceded his final order of deportation. That order contained a withholding of removal, prohibiting Abrego Garcia from being deported to one of two nations, either Guatemala or El Salvador, and Abrego Garcia alleged his March deportation to El Salvador violated the order.
Despite ruling against the DOJ, the magistrate acknowledged Abrego Garcia is likely to remain within the custody of the Trump administration.
“Perhaps the sole circumstance about which the government and Abrego may agree in this case is the likelihood that Abrego will remain in custody regardless of the outcome of the issues raised in the government’s motion for detention,” wrote Holmes in the order.

“Either Abrego will remain in the custody of the Attorney General or her designee pending trial,” or the citizen of El Salvador “will likely remain in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody subject to anticipated removal proceedings that are outside the jurisdiction of this Court.”

The Tennessee Star reported last week that Abrego Garcia dismissed his public defenders in favor of private representation, including from Nashville-based attorney, Rascoe Dean, the son of former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, whose family is tied to a foundation that frequently donates to nonprofits which aid immigrants.
Abrego Garcia is additionally represented by multiple attorneys at Hecker & Fink, the New York-based law firm that in 2020 received $7 million from Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman to fund the civil lawsuits by E. Jean Carroll against President Donald Trump.
The Star was the first news outlet to report Abrego Garcia was pulled over by Tennessee Highway Patrol in November 2022, and was first to report that troopers were ordered to release Abrego Garcia by the “Biden-era FBI,” despite their suspicion he was engaged in human trafficking.


Abrego Garcia was returned to Tennesseeby Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this month, when she unsealed an indictmentclaiming Abrego Garcia was part of a human smuggling conspiracy for nearly a decade. He has pleaded not guilty.


https://tennesseestar.com/justice/ma...rt/2025/06/22/