President Donald Trump’s administration would immediately take steps to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia ― a man who was previously deported to a supermax prison in El Salvador before his return to the U.S. last month ― if he’s released from criminal custody pending his trial, a Justice Department attorney said Monday.
Abrego Garcia, who was sent to El Salvador earlier this year over what the White House initially admitted was an “administrative error,” is currently being held in Tennessee as he awaits trial on accusations that he took part in smuggling undocumented immigrants across the U.S.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have called the charges “baseless” and said there was “no way” a jury would convict him.
Although a federal magistrate judge found that Abrego Garcia doesn’t need to be in pretrial detention because he is not a flight risk, Abrego Garcia’s own lawyers have asked that he remain locked up over fears that the Trump administration will try to deport him again, this time to a third, unknown country.
At a hearing on Monday, Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn told District Judge Paula Xinis that Abrego Garcia will be deported if he’s released from custody, regardless of his pending criminal case. Xinis is overseeing a civil case brought by Abrego Garcia and his family over his wrongful deportation.
“There’s no intention to just put him in limbo in ICE custody while we wait for the criminal case to unfold,” Guynn told Xinis. “He will be removed, as would any other illegal alien in that process.”
The DOJ’s current plan contradicts what the White House had previously said about deporting Abrego Garcia again. On June 6, Attorney General Pam Bondi insisted that he would be re-deported only after his criminal case was over.
“Upon completion of his sentence, we anticipate he will be returned to his home country of El Salvador,” she said at the time.
And in response to an AP story later last month outlining the administration’s plans to deport Abrego Garcia again before trial, White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson called it “fake news.”
“This is fake news,” Jackson wrote on X. “Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States to face trial for the egregious charges against him. He will face the full force of the American justice system – including serving time in American prison for the crimes he’s committed.”
Xinis repeatedly asked during Monday’s hearing how officials planned to pursue Abrego Garcia’s immediate deportation while also mounting a criminal case against him, but didn’t appear to receive a satisfying answer.
“It’s like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall trying to figure out what’s going to happen next week,” Xinis said at one point on Monday. At another point, the judge referred to the Trump administration’s handling of Abrego Garcia’s civil and criminal cases as “complete chaos.”
A July 2 filing from Abrego Garcia’s attorneys alleges he was tortured at El Salvador’s notorious CECOT megaprison. He suffered sleep deprivation and routine beatings, according to the filing.
Inmates in Abrego Garcia’s cell “were forced to kneel from approximately 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM, with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion,” the filing reads. “During this time, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was denied bathroom access and soiled himself.”
At night, gang members attacked each other while guards did nothing, according to the filing.
“Screams from nearby cells would similarly ring out throughout the night without any response from prison guards [or] personnel,” the filing reads.
Monday’s hearing ended with Xinis ordering the Trump administration to produce a Department of Homeland Security witness to testify under oath about the “who, what, when, and where” of the government’s plans to deport Abrego Garcia to a third country.
“Given the series of unlawful actions here, I feel like it’s well within my authority to order this hearing — perhaps more than one — to hear testimony from at least one witness with firsthand knowledge, who can answer these questions about the immediate next steps,” she said.
Xinis scheduled a followup hearing for Thursday.