Kilmar Abrego Garcia is Home. For Now.
A US judge ordered Abrego Garcia's release. He's home, but the saga is far from over.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is back home with his family, finally, for now.
A Quick Recap
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was the man who the US government "mistakenly" deported to CECOT in El Salvador, despite a US Judge finding in 2019 that El Salvador is the one country he should not be sent to.
Last night, a Maryland District Judge ordered for ICE to release Abrego Garcia from his most recent detention by this administration. Hours later, he returned home to his family who has been waiting back in Maryland as this saga continues to play out.
Kilmar was grabbed by ICE while looking for work outside of a Home Depot. Before anyone could stop them, ICE had deported the man, only to learn that he was ordered not to be deported, and not to be deported to the place they had deported him to.
So then the US government decided that the right move here was to double, triple, and quadruple down. They claimed Kilmar Abrego Garcia is some hardened, terrifying criminal who will—and I quote our literal government—"never go free on American soil." Instead of rectify their error, they just kept stating "he is a criminal" and now they have to make good on that or they'll look weak to their supporters.
Gross.
After his return from CECOT, which the US government claimed would be impossible to do, ICE started to field other ways to get rid of him. They charged him with human trafficking after publicly stating they would find a way to go after him. They tried to deport him to multiple countries in Africa, despite being from South America, and despite Abrego Garcia offering to resettle in Costa Rica with Costa Rican officials welcoming the prospect. Instead, ICE claimed that was simply not an option, and so we had to deport him to a country across the entire globe.
Where It Stands
He's finally back home, but still very much a political prisoner of the United States government.
He is essentially under house arrest, faces a trial in Tennessee over claims that he was trafficking people, and ICE is continuing to seek his deportation. He has to check in with ICE routinely, though judge has also ordered that ICE cannot detain him at this time. We'll see if that stands.
His court case in Tennessee, while ongoing, is already on shaky foundation after lawyers for Kilmar filed a motion to dismiss the charges as "vindictive," which, I mean, yeah. From Clearinghouse:
These motions are extremely rare. However, on August 19, Abrego-Garcia moved to dismiss his criminal indictment on these grounds. […] The motion cited numerous statements made by the President and Attorney General Bondi suggesting that the current prosecution was motivated by a desire to punish Abrego-Garcia for filing a lawsuit against the government.
[…]
the Court held that the totality of events created a sufficient evidentiary basis to entitle Abrego-Garcia to discovery and an evidentiary hearing to decide the motion.
It's all ongoing, and it is a massive waste of time, resources, and the life of a human being who could otherwise have been contributing to his community through the work that he was originally trying to find.
Here's hoping the man gets the largest settlement in the history of settlements from this clown show of an administration. One day you're standing in a parking lot looking for work. The next, you're an international focal point carted by government agents to prisons around the world while elected officials from the US go on national television repeatedly calling you a violent criminal on the basis of having brown skin and a Bulls hat.
