Kilmar Abrego Garcia was released from federal detention in Tennessee on Friday and is traveling to Maryland to reunite with his family.
Abrego Garcia was mistakenly sent to a high security CECOT prison in El Salvador by the Donald Trump administration in March. The administration brought him back to the U.S. in June after a lengthy court battle, but kept in him locked up on human smuggling charges.
Though he was granted pre-trial release, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys raised concerns about the administration possibly deporting him to a third country.
Abrego Garcia’s release comes after a recent ruling in a separate case requiring immigration officials to allow migrants, like Abrego Garcia, time to mount a challenge to any deportation order, The Associated Press reports.
“Today, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is free,” Abrego Garcia’s attorney, Sean Hecker, said. “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 is grateful that his access to American courts has provided meaningful due process.”
Another attorney for Abrego Garcia in Maryland, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, added in a statement that he is not out of the woods yet.
“While his release brings some relief, we all know that he is far from safe,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said. “ICE detention or deportation to an unknown third country still threaten to tear his family apart. A measure of justice has been done, but the government must stop pursuing actions that would once again separate this family.”
