Overview
- U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes ruled that Garcia must remain in U.S. Marshals custody until a July 16 hearing to address defense concerns that ICE would deport him if he were freed.
- Prosecutors struck a deal to protect Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes—which spares the three-time felon from deportation—for his cooperation as the government’s principal witness in the 2022 Tennessee smuggling case.
- Hernandez Reyes, a three-time felon convicted of migrant smuggling, illegal reentry and deadly conduct in a Texas shooting, was identified as the registered owner of the SUV Garcia was driving when officers stopped him with nine passengers.
- Garcia was wrongfully deported to El Salvador in March despite a 2019 withholding order, then returned under a Supreme Court mandate to face federal human smuggling charges to which he pleaded not guilty.
- The case underscores tensions between executive deportation policies under President Trump’s administration and federal court requirements to uphold judicial orders and due process rights.