Judge Orders Kilmar Abrego Garcia Released And Prohibits Immediate Re-Arrest

Source: Huff Post

Jul 23, 2025, 04:12 PM EDT


A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Maryland immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia to be released from the Tennessee prison where he has been held since his return from a wrongful deportation to El Salvador. At the same time, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw stipulated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are not permitted to arrest him as soon as he is released.

Instead, if the Trump administration wishes to deport him to another country aside from El Salvador — which they have expressed interest in doing — they must give his attorneys three business days’ notice in order to prepare their defense. The El Salvadoran native was swept up in President Donald Trump’s deportation flights to the country’s brutal CECOT prison back in March, violating a court order specifically preventing him from being sent back to El Salvador out of fear of persecution.

The Justice Department eventually admitted that the deportation was made in error and facilitated his return to the United States, but new federal smuggling charges were promptly lodged against him, resulting in his detention. Prosecutors claim that Abrego Garcia transported undocumented migrants across state lines.

Crenshaw said that Abrego Garcia’s release is consistent with the Supreme Court’s mandate that “his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/judge-orders-release-kilmar-abrego-garcia-prohibits-immediate-re-arrest_n_68812fe2e4b0d55a3f18f6a7