Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s legal team asked a federal judge on Thursday to issue a gag order blocking Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem from making derogatory comments about him in public.
According to Politico, which first reported the news, this is the third time Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have made such a request, arguing that it jeopardizes his right to a fair trial. The 30-year-old Salvadoran national is currently awaiting trial on federal human smuggling charges.
Why It Matters
Abrego Garcia made headlines when he was swept up in a Trump administration deportation crackdown in March and mistakenly sent to a high-security mega-prison in El Salvador.
Immigration rights advocates have vehemently argued that the Trump administration violated Abrego Garcia and other detainees’ right to due process by detaining and deporting them without giving them a chance to contest their detentions in court.
Abrego Garcia’s case is among several challenges brought against the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which the government has used to deliver on President Donald Trump‘s pledge to aggressively ramp up deportations.
What To Know
Abrego Garcia was brought back to the United States after a lengthy back-and-forth between his lawyers and attorneys for the government.
The Trump administration maintains that the Salvadoran national is part of the notorious MS-13 gang—an allegation he denies—and said it plans to deport him to Uganda.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers told a judge on Wednesday that their client wants to seek asylum in the United States. In Thursday’s court filing, they argued that Bondi and Noem’s public attacks against their client could compromise his constitutional rights.
“Further intervention from the Court is necessary to protect Mr. Abrego’s right to a fair trial and the integrity of these proceedings,” the filing said. “The government’s ongoing barrage of prejudicial statements severely threaten—and perhaps have already irrevocably impaired—the ability to try this case at all—in any venue.”
This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.
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