Kilmar Abrego Garcia, pictured at center, accompanied by his attorney, released from jail in Putnam County, Tennessee on August 22, 2025. (Photo by John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose wrongful deportation to a prison in El Salvador brought widespread public scrutiny of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown tactics, was released from a rural Tennessee jail on Friday, five months after being detained while driving to his Maryland home.
Abrego will be escorted by the U.S. Marshals Service back Maryland, where he must report to pretrial services by 10 a.m. Monday. He will also be under the supervision of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, which could choose to detain him. A Maryland court order in a separate case requires he be given 72 hours notice if the government plans to send him to a “third country.”
An order filed Friday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Tennessee noted that “should Abrego be taken into ICE custody following his return to Maryland” the government “shall ensure that, while Abrego remains in ICE custody, he has access to his attorneys, both physically and via telephone, to allow Abrego to prepare for trial in this case.”
Abrego will also be subject to electronic location monitoring and placed in the custody of his brother, the order noted.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, in a social media statement, called Abrego’s release a “new low,” wrongly ascribing the decision to release him to a Maryland judge.
“Activist liberal judges have attempted to obstruct our law enforcement every step of the way in removing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from our country,” the statement said. “We will not stop fighting till this Salvadoran man faces justice and is OUT of our country.”
Abrego, as the Tennessee court refers to him, was dispatched to El Salvador after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Maryland, where he has lived with his wife and children and works as an apprentice sheet metal worker. A government prosecutor later conceded his deportation was an error. Abrego, who entered the country illegally as a teen, was the subject of an immigration court order barring his removal to his home country of El Salvador, where he said he feared gang violence.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is escorted into a waiting car after his release from the Putnam County Jail on Aug. 22, 2025. (Photo by John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
He was returned to Tennessee in June to face human smuggling charges that prosecutors say are tied to a 2022 Tennessee traffic stop. Abrego was neither cited nor arrested when he was pulled over by Tennessee Highway Patrol officers with nine passengers in his vehicle. Prosecutors now allege the stop was part of a human smuggling operation in which Abrego was paid to transport immigrants illegally in the United States to points around the country.
Abrego has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, said in a statement that Abrego’s release shows the “legal system has worked its will and is upholding Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s right to due process.”
“While I have no doubt the Administration will continue its attempts to undermine Mr. Abrego Garcia’s rights, we will continue fighting to see them maintained — because due process in this case does not end with his release. Mr. Abrego Garcia must continue to be allowed to defend himself in court, where the Trump Administration must make its case before taking any further action against him.
“This is a matter that’s greater than just this one case or one man – if one person’s rights are denied, then the rights of all of us are at risk.”
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