Lawyers representing Kilmar Abrego Garcia have asked a judge in Tennessee to delay his release from jail, in a bid to avoid deportation.
The filing on Monday was the latest turn in the case of Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported to his native El Salvador by the administration of President Donald Trump in March, but later returned to the US in June following a Supreme Court order.
Abrego Garcia has been held in jail since his return, as he faces smuggling charges related to a 2022 traffic stop.
His lawyers have dismissed the charges as “preposterous” and an effort by US officials to demonise Abrego Garcia, who has become a cause celebre for opponents of Trump’s mass deportation drive.
At the same time, they believe that if Abrego Garcia is released ahead of his trial, he will be detained by immigration agents and deported, according to the Monday filing.
They requested that any release of Abrego Garcia be delayed by 30 days so he can “evaluate his options and determine whether additional relief is necessary”.
US District Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr is expected to soon rule on whether to free Abrego Garcia, after another judge ruled he could be released as he did not pose a flight risk.
Plan to deport
The Trump administration has long maintained that Abrego Garcia, a resident of Maryland, was a member of an MS-13 gang, a claim his lawyers have said was based on faulty information.
Abrego Garcia has never been convicted of a crime or had the claims adjudicated in court.
He was among those loaded onto a deportation flight to El Salvador under the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act, which the Trump administration has argued allows for the swift deportation of alleged gang members.
Administration officials later admitted that Abrego Garcia had been wrongly deported due to an “administrative error”, as an immigration judge in 2019 had shielded Abrego Garcia from deportation to El Salvador. The judge determined he faces threats of gang violence in his home country.
Still, for several months, the administration refused to return Abrego Garcia, who came to the US in 2011 without documentation.
Trump officials have since said that the immigration judge’s 2019 order only applies to El Salvador, and have maintained that they can legally deport Abrego Garcia to a third country.
Last month, the US Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration could deport individuals to far-flung third countries, including war-torn South Sudan, until a legal challenge to the practice makes its way through the lower courts.
Abrego Garcia’s wife, meanwhile, has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in Maryland. His lawyers have requested that he be transferred to state custody while the criminal and civil cases proceed.
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