A federal judge has ruled that Kilmar Abrego Garcia will stay in jail after his lawyers said they were worried he would be deported if he was released.
Abrego Garcia's attorneys asked the judge to delay their client's release last Friday, saying they were worried about mixed messages from Donald Trump's administration. The administration has said the Department of Justice intends to try Abrego Garcia for human smuggling before he is deported, but his attorneys say there are still concerns that he could be deported as soon as he's released.
“We cannot put any faith in any representation made on this issue," lawyers wrote in a filing on Friday. The irony of seeking to keep Abrego Garcia in jail, they wrote, "is not lost on anyone.”
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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.
A federal judge ordered Abrego Garcia's release from jail on June 22.
But earlier on June 13, prosecutors said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would take Abrego Garcia into custody on those charges if he were released from jail.
It is not clear whether the Department of Justice or the Department of Homeland Security would have priority over Abrego Garcia's case.
