The Trump administration may try to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a country other than El Salvador if he is released from jail, a government lawyer said Thursday.
In a months-long legal saga, Abrego Garcia was deported from Maryland to his native El Salvador in March, despite a prior court ruling that barred him from being sent to the Central American country. He was flown back to the U.S. earlier this month — after a Maryland judge ordered his return — but promptly jailed on federal smuggling charges in Tennessee. A Tennessee judge ordered him to be released pre-trial last weekend, but he will remain in jail until at least Friday.
At a hearing in Maryland federal court on Thursday, Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn said that once Abrego Garcia is released from detention, Immigration and Customs Enforcement intends to begin removal proceedings to send him to a “third country,” rather than El Salvador.
Guynn said, however, that there are “no imminent plans” to remove him from the U.S., and did not provide specifics of when the administration would seek to deport him.
Attorneys request Abrego Garcia’s return to Maryland
Also in Thursday’s Maryland court proceedings, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys requested that he be protected from another deportation and returned to the state.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland scheduled a hearing for July 7 to review Abrego Garcia’s arguments. The judge will also review the government’s motion to dismiss Abrego Garcia’s civil lawsuit over his earlier deportation, which has played out in Xinis’ courtroom.
Meanwhile, in Abrego Garcia’s criminal court proceedings in Tennessee on Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes ordered that Abrego Garcia remain in custody at least until Friday, as lawyers debate whether the Justice Department can stop him from being deported after he is released from jail.
Prosecutors argue that if Abrego Garcia is released and then arrested again on immigration grounds, the Justice Department would lose a “meaningful opportunity” to try its case because he could be deported. His lawyers called the concerns “a possible self-inflicted injury,” due to the Department of Homeland Security’s desire to deport him.
Holmes ordered Abrego Garcia’s release last weekend.
Abrego Garcia faces human smuggling charges
Abrego Garcia, is facing charges for his alleged role in a migrant smuggling conspiracy. He pleaded not guilty to those charges.
He was returned to the U.S. in early June after the Salvadoran government was given a warrant for his arrest.
Attorney General Pam Bondi alleged Abrego Garcia played “a significant role” in a smuggling ring between 2016 and 2025. The scheme allegedly involved six others and included the transportation of illegally purchased firearms.
If convicted, he would serve his sentence in the U.S. before potentially facing deportation again.
But a 2019 court ruling barred Abrego Garcia — who entered the U.S. illegally around 2011 — from being deported to El Salvador, specifically, due to fear of persecution by his home country’s gangs.
Despite that ruling, he was detained in March and sent to a Salvadoran prison, in what the government described as an “administrative error.”
Wife pleads for Maryland return
Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, told supporters this week, “This fight has been the hardest thing in my life.”
She traveled from Maryland to Tennessee for a court hearing Wednesday, which she also said was the couple’s anniversary.
“I find myself again torn from my children, traveling back to Nashville to fight for Kilmar’s freedom,” his wife said. “Instead of celebrating our love surrounded by families, I’m here, yet I’m not alone. I will celebrate our fight and the fight of all those who fought with us and refused to give up. We will not stop until my husband is free.”
