Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s lawyers asked a judge on Friday to order that he not be removed from the U.S. without at least 72 hours notice should he be released on bond.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s legal team asked a judge at a hearing Friday to order that he not be removed from the United States without at least 72 hours notice should he be released on bond from detention in Tennessee.
On Day 3 of a hearing in Maryland on the government’s plans for the longtime Maryland resident this week, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis repeatedly blasted the government for what she said was an insufficient effort to address what exactly will be done to ensure due process for Abrego Garcia if he’s taken into ICE custody following his release.
« We’re asking for 72 hours, 72 hours notice, so that my client can have an opportunity to run to whatever is the appropriate court at that moment to get relief before he’s shipped off to an as-yet-unidentified country and he’s potentially subject to torture or persecution in violation of a court order. That’s all we’re asking », Abrego Garcia’s attorney told the judge.
The judge did not rule from the bench but said she would do so soon.
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.
Government attorneys have said that, should Abrego Garcia be released on bond, he could be deported again, but Abrego Garcia’s legal team has argued he should be transferred from Tennessee to Maryland to await trial.
Judge Xinis, however, acknowledged the government’s position that there’s no ICE detention facility in Maryland.
