(Nashville) Kilmar Abrego Garcia was released on Friday from his prison in Tennessee in order to be able to join his family in Maryland pending his trial for human trafficking.
The case of this Salvadoran national has become a sensitive point in the immigration program of President Donald Trump after his expulsion in March in March. Faced with a court decision, the Trump administration repatriated him to the United States in June, before placing him in detention for criminal charges.
Although Mr. Abrego Garcia was deemed eligible for a provisional release, he had stayed in prison at the request of his lawyers, who feared that the republican administration would try to expel him again immediately if he was released. These concerns were attenuated by a recent decision in another case, which obliges immigration agents to grant Mr. Abrego Garcia a period to challenge any expulsion decision.
At the start of the week, his lawyers filed a request asking the judge to classify the criminal case, saying that he is prosecuted to punish him for having disputed his expulsion to Salvador. The Salvadorien pleaded not guilty of the charges of smuggling, which arise from a road control carried out in 2022 in Tennessee for speeding.
The images of the shiny camera of a Tennessee road police officer show a calm exchange with Mr. Abrego Garcia. Nine passengers were on board the vehicle and the agents discussed their suspicions of smuggling among themselves. However, Mr. Abrego Garcia was authorized to continue his journey with a simple warning.
An agent of the Department of Internal Security testified that he had only opened the investigation into this roadside control last April, when the government underwent increasing pressure to return the man to the United States.
Mr. Abrego Garcia, detained in Putnam County prison, has an American wife and children and has lived in Maryland for years, but he illegally immigrant in the United States.
In 2019, an immigration judge rejected his asylum application, but granted him protection against an expulsion to Salvador, where he rarely feared the victim of acts of violence, according to court documents. He was required to go to immigration and customs services every year, while internal security delivered him a work permit.
Although Mr. Abrego Garcia could not be expelled to Salvador without breaking the judge’s ordinance, internal security officials declared that they were planning to expel it to an unidentified third country.
