(NEW YORK) — The federal judge overseeing Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s deportation case in Maryland will hear arguments Monday over whether Abrego Garcia should be transferred to Maryland as he awaits trial on human smuggling charges in Tennessee.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys filed an emergency motion last week seeking to have him returned to Maryland should he released on bond, but government attorneys say they will seek to deport him to a country other than his native El Salvador, where he is prohibited from being sent due to a 2019 court order.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who has been handling Abrego Garcia’s Maryland case, will also hear arguments from the Trump administration seeking to have Abrego Garcia’s Maryland case dismissed.
Abrego Garcia, who was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution, was brought back to the U.S. last month to face charges in Tennessee of allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the U.S. while he was living in Maryland. He has pleaded not guilty.
The magistrate judge overseeing the Tennessee case is expected to release him on bond as he awaits trial, setting up a battle over his potential removal.
In a court filing last week, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys said he had been subjected to severe mistreatment including “beatings, severe deprivation, inadequate nutrition and psychological torture” while he was held in CECOT, arguing that he “could face persecution or torture if removed directly to various other countries, including but not limited to countries with notorious human rights abuses like Libya, South Sudan, and Eritrea.”
The next hearing in Abrego Garcia’s criminal case is set for July 16 in Tennessee.
Robert McGuire, acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, filed a motion last week to set a jury trial date “within 70 days of his initial appearance.”
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