Federal judge to hear arguments on Abrego Garcia's detention pending trial

A federal judge in Tennessee is set to hear from federal prosecutors on Wednesday regarding their request that Kilmar Abrego Garcia be detained pending trial on charges of human smuggling.

Last month, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes ordered Abrego Garcia not to be detained pending trial and set conditions for his release. However, after the federal government requested a stay of the order, a district judge scheduled an evidentiary hearing to allow the government to argue it request for his detention.

Robert E. McGuire, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, said in a filing that he could call on a Department of Homeland Security official to testify at the hearing about his review of body and camera footage from a 2022 traffic stop of Abrego Garcia by the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native, was deported in March to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison -- despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution -- after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which he denies.

He was brought back to the U.S. last month to face charges in Tennessee of allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the U.S. while he was living in Maryland. He has pleaded not guilty.

In a separate court filing on Tuesday, McGuire argued that Abrego Garcia should be detained pending trial because "there is no combination of bail conditions that can reasonably assure either the safety of the community or the defendant's appearance in future court proceedings."

McGuire said that the evidence he presented during a detention hearing last month "was overwhelming, corroborated, and otherwise uncontradicted by anything else in the record." He also argued the court cannot "be reasonably assured" Abrego Garcia will refrain from committing additional crimes and appear for court proceedings given the likelihood of deportation that he faces.

The government has said that Abrego Garcia will likely be deported to a third country if released from criminal custody.

An official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement testified during a hearing last week in Maryland that Mexico and South Sudan were among a handful of countries where the U.S. has deported noncitizens who have asked not to be returned to their countries of origin out of fear of torture or persecution.

Abrego Garcia's legal team in the Maryland case requested that the court order that he not be removed from the U.S. without at least 72 hours notice should he be released on bond from detention in Tennessee.