The fate of Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia is still unclear. A federal judge in Maryland held a hearing on Friday to get clarity on the government's plans for a potential deportation.
Attorneys for Abrego Garcia are worried he could be sent off to a third-party country, possibly Mexico or even South Sudan, as soon as sometime next week.
An ICE official testified in court Thursday that those countries are possibilities, even though nothing right now is set in stone.
Abrego Garcia's attorneys have asked a federal judge to enforce a 72 hour hold before Abrego Garcia is deported, if he will in fact be deported to another country. They also want to know which country he would be deported to, in order to mount a case as to why he should not be deported.
“In addition, it's unclear whatever country he would be sent to, whether he would be even at liberty in that country, or whether he would be incarcerated, and it's unclear whether he would be allowed to remain in any such country, or whether that country would simply re-deport him on to El Salvador, his country. All those are issues that need to be decided by an immigration judge, not this court. But we can't even get in front of an immigration judge if they're going to whisk him onto a plane, you know, as soon as they hit as soon as he hits ICE custody," said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, an attorney for Abrego Garcia.
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Abrego Garcia was among more than 200 people who were deported to El Salvador back in March. But his case is unique because even though he's from that country, he had a standing court order which prohibited his return to that country because he had a fear for his life.
The Justice Department returned Abrego Garcia to custody in the U.S. early in June. In May, a grand jury charged him with alien smuggling and conspiracy to commit alien smuggling.
Federal prosecutors allege Abrego Garcia “played a significant role in an undocumented alien smuggling ring that has resulted in thousands of undocumented aliens being illegally transported into and throughout the United States.”
Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The judge in Tennessee is inclined to grant bail because they do not believe that Abrego Garcia is a potential flight risk. There's a hearing next week Wednesday. If he is released on bail after the hearing, there's a possibility that he could be taken into ICE custody.
