A judge ordered Abrego Garcia released. His future remains uncertain

[BumRushDaShow]

Last edited Wed Jun 25, 2025, 06:57 PM - Edit history (3)

Source: NPR

Updated June 25, 2025 5:23 PM ET


A federal judge said there's no reason to keep detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador and later returned to the U.S., while he awaits trial on federal charges. That's according to a written order from U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw of Tennessee on Wednesday that followed a hearing.

The hearing on Wednesday was meant to set conditions for Abrego Garcia's release, including limitations on his travel. The judge on the case gave the government and Abrego Garcia's lawyers more time to submit statements on his release conditions.

Even if he's released from the custody of the Department of Justice, Abrego Garcia, a native of El Salvador, is likely to be immediately taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE has said he must be deported no matter what happens in his criminal trial.

Judge Crenshaw acknowledged that fact in his Wednesday opinion, and said it's up to the government to mediate between agencies and decide what happens. "The Executive Branch is in control of where Defendant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia awaits trial in this case," Crenshaw wrote. "This is true because the Executive Branch can elect whether to hold him for pending deportation proceedings or not."

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2025/06/25/nx-s1-5445168/abrego-garcia-prison-immigration

---

The judge apparently rejected DOJ's appeal - Trump DOJ does shocking 180, imploring judge not to release Abrego Garcia for fear ICE will cause 'irreparable problems' by deporting him behind its back


Bondi manufactured this whole fictional "Plan B case" for teevee and now they shot themselves in the foot by not being able to finish their cliffhanger episode if ICE actually deports him.


Article updated.

Previous article/headlines -

Judge sees no reason to keep holding Abrego Garcia pending criminal trial

A federal judge said there's no reason to keep detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador and later returned to the U.S., while he awaits trial on federal charges. That's according to a written order from U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw of Tennessee on Wednesday that followed a hearing.

The hearing on Wednesday was meant to set conditions for Abrego Garcia's release, including limitations on his travel. The judge on the case gave the government and Abrego Garcia's lawyers more time to submit statements on his release conditions.

Even if he's released from the custody of the Department of Justice, Abrego Garcia, a native of El Salvador, is likely to be immediately taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE has said he must be deported no matter what happens in his criminal trial. Judge Crenshaw acknowledged that fact in his Wednesday opinion.

"The Executive Branch is in control of where Defendant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia awaits trial in this case," Crenshaw wrote. "This is true because the Executive Branch can elect whether to hold him for pending deportation proceedings or not."

Original article/headline -

Judge orders Abrego Garcia released from prison pending his criminal trial

June 25, 2025 4:45 PM ET


A judge ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador and later returned to the U.S., to be released from prison on Wednesday while he awaits trial on federal charges.

That's according to a decision from U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw of Tennessee on Wednesday.

Despite the court order, Abrego Garcia, a native of El Salvador, is likely to be immediately taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has said he must be deported no matter what happens in his criminal trial. Judge Crenshaw acknowledged that fact in his Wednesday opinion.

"The Executive Branch is in control of where Defendant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia awaits trial in this case," he wrote. "This is true because the Executive Branch can elect whether to hold him for pending deportation proceedings or not."

[D. Spaulding]

1. Unfortunately, ICE will probably scoop him up

the minute he walks out the door.

[SSJVegeta]

2. Im confused. Wasnt there a court order requiring him to be able to challenge his deportation?

Are they allowing him to challenge it appropriately?

[D. Spaulding]

3. I believe he will, and can challenge it, but

elements in the administration have already basically indicated he'll be swept up and put into immigration detention right away. I'm sure his lawyers will challenge it. They'll likely argue that he was already released from detention and allowed to receive a work permit when the last judge denied his asylum claim but issued a withholding of removal to El Salvador. I'm guessing the government will point to the current, though questionable charge he's facing, as evidence of why they think he should be in detention. It will be interesting to watch what happens.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. Star witness against Kilmar Abrego Garca was due to be deported. Now he's being freed.

The trump administration/DOJ have been embarrassed by this case. The trump DOJ was forced to bring Garcia back by the courts and so to compensate they made up a case against him. The trial judge rejected that case as being based on double hearsay. It seems that to get even weak witnesses, the trump DOJ are making bad deals to let real criminals go free or not be deported.

Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes is a three-time felon who has been released early from federal prison to a halfway house in exchange for his cooperation in the case.

EXCLUSIVE

Star witness against Kilmar Abrego García was due to be deported after firing shots in a Houston suburb & reentering the U.S. illegally.

Now he’s being freed.

www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

— Maria Sacchetti - reporter - The Washington Post (@mariasacchetti.bsky.social) 2025-06-29T00:21:11.017Z

Link to tweet

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/06/28/star-witness-against-kilmar-abrego-garca-was-due-be-deported-now-hes-being-freed

The Trump administration has agreed to release from prison a three-time felon who drunkenly fired shots in a Texas community and spare him from deportation in exchange for his cooperation in the federal prosecution of Kilmar Abrego García, according to a review of court records and official testimony.

Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes, 38, has been convicted of smuggling migrants and illegally reentering the United States after having been deported. He also pleaded guilty to “deadly conduct” in the Texas incident, and is now the government’s star witness in its case against Abrego.

The government illegally deported Abrego to a notorious megaprison in El Salvador in March, and stonewalled for weeks after the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return to the United States. Officials flew the Maryland resident back into the country this month, but only after a grand jury had indicted him on charges of migrant smuggling, in part because of Hernandez’s testimony......

Hernandez is among a handful of cooperating witnesses who could help the Trump administration achieve its goal of never letting Abrego walk free in the United States again. In exchange, he has already been released early from federal prison to a halfway house and has been given permission to stay in the U.S. for at least a year.

“Otherwise he would be deported,” Peter Joseph, a Homeland Security Investigations special agent, testified at Abrego’s criminal hearing June 13. The government is also likely to give him a work permit, the agent told the court.....

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara D. Holmes ruled on June 22 that Abrego was eligible for release from criminal custody, saying the government had failed to prove that he posed a flight risk or a danger to the community. She wrote that she put “little weight” on the claims of Hernandez and other cooperators based on their records and interest in avoiding deportation.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. They went so far out on a limb to create a boastful "warning-via-reality-show TV production"

and did so in such an arrogant fashion, they left no "face-saving" options for idiocy like matter-of-factly insisting that he was "NOT coming back to our country", and even got the President of El Salvador to "play along" by insisting when asked about returning him, that of course he was "not going to do it".

So between the photo-shopped "MS-13 knuckles", these fake witnesses, and his sudden return to the U.S., they continue to dig deeper and deeper.