Overview

• U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes ruled on June 22 that Kilmar Abrego Garcia should be released under home detention and monitoring after finding prosecutors failed to show he posed a significant flight risk.
• The Justice Department immediately appealed Holmes’s order, arguing that ICE detention and possible deportation would undermine its ability to prosecute Garcia on human smuggling charges.
• U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw denied the government’s request to stay the release order and set an evidentiary hearing for July 16 to consider revoking it.
• Garcia pleaded not guilty on June 13 to charges stemming from a November 2022 Tennessee traffic stop and remains in custody as ICE signals it will detain him upon any potential release.
• The case underscores interagency tensions after the Trump administration acknowledged an administrative error led to Garcia’s March deportation to El Salvador despite federal court orders blocking his removal.