The controversy surrounding the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia escalated on Friday when he was released to be with his family, and the Trump administration immediately took action.
Garcia has been the focus of high-profile litigation after he was deported to a prison for terrorists in El Salvador based on claims from the Trump administration that he was a member of the infamous MS-13 criminal gang.
‘We have said it for months and it remains true to this day: he will never go free on American soil.’
After much legal wrangling, Garcia was returned to the U.S., but the government immediately obtained an indictment based on new allegations of his involvement in a multi-state human trafficking operation.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyer Sean Hecker said Friday that he was released from Putnam County Jail in Tennessee.
“Today, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is free,” he said to WZTV-TV.
“He is presently en route to his family in Maryland, after being unlawfully arrested and deported, and then imprisoned, all because of the government’s vindictive attack on a man who had the courage to fight back against the administration’s continuing assault on the rule of law,” he added. “He is grateful that his access to American courts has provided meaningful due process.”
Hecker was likely referring to a Supreme Court ruling that said the government needed to give Garcia some due process rights before deporting him.
That due process came in the form of a letter from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that notified Garcia that he might be deported to Uganda within 72 hours. In addition to that, Garcia was ordered to reported to the Baltimore ICE office on Monday.
The government had previously told a court that they had plans to deport him to a third country apart from the U.S. and El Salvador.
In June, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin promised that Garcia would never be set free in the U.S.
“Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a dangerous criminal illegal alien. We have said it for months and it remains true to this day: he will never go free on American soil,” she wrote.
Garcia and his wife have denied that he’s a member of the criminal gang.
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