Federal Judge Orders Release of Abrego Garcia While He Awaits Trial, Says Government 'Failed' To Prove Danger

A protester holds a photo of Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia as demonstrators gather to protest against the deportation of immigrants to El Salvador outside the Permanent Mission of El Salvador to the United Nations on April 24, 2025 in New York City. Many of the deportees now detained at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) were sent there without court hearings under the Alien Enemies Act after a deal was brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele. (Credit: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

A federal judge ruled that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador who has become one of the faces in the Trump administration's mass deportation program, is eligible to be released from custody while he awaits a federal trial on human smuggling charges.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara D. Holmes said the government "failed" to prove that Abrego Garcia, an immigrant from El Salvador, poses enough of a danger to society that he should be held while he awaits trial on charges that he participated in a migrant smuggling ring for nearly a decade.