In a news report from August 23, 2025, it was mentioned that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an immigrant who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration in March this year, was released on Friday (August 22) in Tennessee and moved to Maryland to await trial for his criminal case. However, he still faces the possibility of being arrested and deported by immigration authorities.
US federal authorities brought Abrego Garcia back to the United States from El Salvador in June, charging him with trafficking illegal immigrants before detaining him in a prison in Tennessee.
Judge Barbara Holmes of the Tennessee federal court ruled last month that immigration authorities cannot arrest and deport Abrego Garcia immediately after his release from criminal detention, ordering the federal government to send him back to Maryland to await his criminal trial.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyer stated on Friday that the immigrant is heading to his brother’s home in the suburbs of Maryland, where he will reside under a series of bail conditions, supervised by his brother. He must also report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Baltimore by 10 a.m. on August 25.
Despite a federal judge’s decision in July to release Abrego Garcia for his criminal case, his lawyer requested the judge to suspend any possible release order for 30 days to “assess options” in response to the likelihood of immigration officials arresting and deporting Garcia again.
By the end of July, Judge Paula Xinis, overseeing Garcia’s immigration case in Maryland, also issued a ruling prohibiting the Trump administration from immediately rearresting and deporting the immigrant upon his release from Tennessee. The ruling allowed ICE to restart immigration proceedings once Garcia returned to Maryland, but required the agency to provide a 72-hour notice before attempting to deport him to a third country.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyer on Friday mentioned that the release provided some legal remedies for the immigrant, but “we all know he is far from safe,” as ICE could still detain or deport him to a third country, separating him from his family.
Abrego Garcia’s wife and their five-year-old child are both US citizens.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen, reportedly entered the US in 2011 at the age of 16. In 2019, a confidential informant informed US authorities that Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang. Garcia later applied for asylum with the US immigration authorities, who subsequently determined that he could be returned to El Salvador, with the execution of this decision postponed.
In mid-March this year, the Trump administration, based on the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, deported several hundred immigrants, including Abrego Garcia, identified as members of the Venezuelan gang “Tren de Aragua” to a prison in El Salvador. However, this deportation sparked a series of legal disputes and became a political focal point for both parties in the US regarding the Trump administration’s tough immigration policies.