Abrego Garcia released from federal custody amid deportation battle

Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia was released from federal custody Friday in Tennesee and is slated to return to his family in Maryland, though his legal proceedings are far from over.

Abrego Garcia, who was charged earlier this year with transporting illegal migrants in the U.S., will remain under the custody of his brother.

The criminal investigation that resulted in those charges, stemming from a 2022 traffic stop, was later revealed to have begun while he was detained in El Salvador, raising questions about the nature of the probe.  

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes on Friday entered a new federal court order in the Middle District of Tennessee detailing certain conditions of his release from federal custody, where his attorneys had asked that he be held for an additional 30 days, citing fears that he would immediately be arrested by ICE and deported again — this time to a third country, such as Mexico or South Sudan.

ABREGO GARCIA LAWYERS FILE MOTION TO DISMISS CRIMINAL CHARGES FROM TRUMP DOJ

The order Friday codifies certain conditions of Abrego Garcia’s release. It clarifies that he should be placed in the custody of his brother — who is his designated third-party custodian — prior to trial. Abrego Garcia will also be required to wear an electronic monitoring device, and report to Pretrial Services for the District of Maryland. It also orders him to report there no later than 10 a.m. on Monday, August 25.

“Thereafter, Abrego must remain in the custody of his brother as the designated third-party custodian and in compliance with all conditions of pretrial release,” Holmes said in her order.

News of his release was met with fierce backlash by some Trump officials, including DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who assailed Abrego Garcia’s release in a statement Friday as the work of “activist liberal judges” who have “attempted to obstruct” law enforcement. 

“We will not stop fighting till this Salvadoran man faces justice and is OUT of our country,” she vowed

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a news conference on Tuesday, July 8, 2025, at Reagan National Airport in Washington.  (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Fox News was told by multiple sources that neither DHS nor ICE has “immediate plans” to arrest Abrego Garcia on immigration grounds, due to the conditions laid out by a…