Kilmar Abrego Garcia pleaded not responsible Friday to human smuggling prices, and the choose in case stated she would wait to subject a call on whether or not he needs to be launched from custody pending trial.
One week after he was brought back to the Unites States from detention in El Salvador, Abrego Garcia entered his not responsible plea at his arraignment in Tennessee, the place federal prosecutors have charged him with transporting undocumented migrants throughout the U.S. in what they are saying was a conspiracy involving the home transport of 1000’s of noncitizens from Mexico and Central America, together with some youngsters, in change for 1000’s of {dollars}.
Following his plea, U.S. Justice of the Peace Choose Barbara Holmes heard arguments over whether or not he ought to proceed to be detained, after which she stated she would seemingly subject a written order within the close to future — “quickly reasonably than later,” she stated.
Prosecutors acknowledged in a court filing on Monday that Abrego Garcia would virtually actually be instantly taken into custody by ICE if Choose Holmes had been to disclaim their movement for pre-trial detention — however they requested the court docket to contemplate, for the sake of argument, that he “would have an unlimited cause to flee” if he weren’t instantly detained by ICE.
A lot of the federal government’s testimony in help of pre-trial detention got here from Homeland Safety particular agent Pete Joseph, who testified about his investigation into the 2022 traffic stop the place Abrego Garcia was pulled over for dashing in a car with eight passengers and instructed police that they had been working building in Missouri.
The Tennessee Freeway Patrol officers in the end issued no dashing ticket and allowed Abrego Garcia to drive on with only a warning about an expired driver’s license.
As ABC Information previously reported, the legal investigation that led to the costs was launched in April as federal authorities started to scrutinize the site visitors cease.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant on this handout picture obtained by Reuters on April 9, 2025.
Abrego Garcia Household by way of Reuters
Joseph testified that legislation enforcement officers who pulled over the car requested these within the automobile to write down down their title, date of delivery and the place they had been touring to — what was described in court docket as a “roster” of who was touring within the automobile. One individual on the roster was a 15-year-old minor, in keeping with the checklist offered to legislation enforcement — a bit of proof that the federal government alleges proves that Abrego Garcia additionally transported minors.
The choose grappled with how a lot weight to provide that data, provided that the Tennessee Freeway Patrol trooper wasn’t in court docket to testify particularly concerning the checklist.
“I am not saying to you that I am fully discounting it,” stated Choose Holmes, who added that she wasn’t positive she was keen to simply accept that as a result of the individual was a minor meant that he was a minor sufferer.
Joseph additionally testified that a few of the alleged co-conspirators and witnesses who spoke with federal authorities alleged that Abrego Garcia generally transported noncitizens together with his spouse and youngsters. His youngsters, Joseph stated, sat on the floorboard of the automobile.
U.S. legal professional Robert McGuire argued that confirmed there was a hazard to Abrego Garcia’s youngsters, who he allegedly used as “cowl.”
“I might submit, Your Honor, that his youngsters had been in danger,” McGuire stated. “It’s a harmful enterprise. And it was harmful for his youngsters.”
Attorneys representing Abrego Garcia pressed Joseph concerning the so-called “offers” witnesses and co-conspirators obtained in change for his or her testimony.
Jose Ramon Hernandez-Reyes, the proprietor of the automobile Abrego Garcia was driving — and the primary witness for the federal government — is a two-time felon who re-entered the nation 5 occasions, in keeping with Joseph.
Reyes, who was serving a 30-month jail sentence for unlawful reentry, was just lately despatched to a midway home as a result of safety issues — some extent Abrego Garcia’s attorneys centered on throughout their cross examination.
Abrego Garcia has been the topic of a protracted authorized battle since he was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — regardless of a 2019 court docket order barring his deportation to that nation as a result of worry of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the legal gang MS-13, which his household and attorneys deny.
The Trump administration, after arguing for practically two months that it was unable to being him again, returned him the U.S. final week to face a two-count indictment alleging that, whereas residing together with his spouse and youngsters in Maryland, he participated in a yearslong conspiracy to haul undocumented migrants from Texas to the inside of the nation.
Along with arguing that Abrego Garcia represents a flight danger, the federal government contends that Abrego-Garcia’s alleged MS-13 ties put him liable to trying to impede justice or intimidate potential witnesses in opposition to him, together with his alleged co-conspirators.
“The US would submit that not less than one co-conspirator has described that the Defendant has beforehand used his membership in MS-13 not simply to facilitate his criminal activity within the smuggling conspiracy but additionally to intimidate others within the conspiracy who tried to confront him concerning the therapy of feminine smuggling victims and his smuggling of firearms and medicines which added to the conspiracy’s danger of detection and weren’t a aim of the general conspiracy,” the federal government’s Monday submitting stated.
In response, attorneys for Abrego Garcia stated in a submitting Wednesday that the Trump administration’s arguments for a detention listening to are meritless.
“It also needs to come as no shock that the federal government has not cited a single case holding {that a} generic alien-smuggling cost gives grounds for a detention listening to,” Abrego Garcia’s attorneys stated. “This case shouldn’t be the primary.”
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys additionally argued within the submitting that their consumer shouldn’t be a flight danger, and stated that the federal government “factors to zero information” suggesting Abrego Garcia has a historical past of evading arrest, has any prior restrictions, or has “systematically engaged in worldwide journey within the current previous.”
The attorneys additionally argued that there isn’t a “severe danger” Abrego Garcia will impede justice, arguing that the federal government’s “baseless gang-affiliation allegations” don’t help a discovering that he poses a “severe danger” of obstructive conduct.
“[The] authorities shouldn’t be entitled to hunt detention on this case, Mr. Abrego Garcia respectfully asks the Courtroom to disclaim the federal government’s movement for detention,” the attorneys stated.
