Miami, US, (EFE). – A United States judge on Wednesday scheduled the human smuggling trial against the Salvadoran migrant deported by mistake, Kilmar Ábrego García, for January 2026 and delayed his decision on his release.
According to court documents to which EFE had access, Tennessee District Magistrate Waverly D. Crenshaw scheduled the trial for January 27 after a hearing that lasted more than three hours.
However, Crenshaw did not rule on whether to release Abrego Garcia before the trial.
The prosecution warned that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would detain Ábrego García and deport him to a third country, such as Mexico or South Sudan, if he were released before the trial.
Abrego Garcia is currently imprisoned in Nashville for allegedly transporting undocumented individuals into the United States.
Maryland judge had ordered his release in a civil case brought by Ábrego’s family against the Trump administration for his deportation to El Salvador. However, the Salvadoran’s lawyers requested that he remain in prison to prevent his deportation.
They made this request in an attempt to buy enough time for the Maryland magistrate to grant Ábrego García relief before the trial in Tennessee. However, that decision has not yet been made.
Minutes before Wednesday’s hearing began, civil organizations held a press conference outside the courthouse to request protection for Ábrego García.
García, 30, pleaded not guilty to human trafficking. His defense alleges he is being persecuted by the US government to justify the mistake made in deporting him to El Salvador.
According to court documents filed by his defense, he has lived in Maryland for more than a decade and fled El Salvador because of extortion and threats he and his family received from the Barrio 18 gang.
In March, the Salvadoran was deported from the US and sent to the high-security CECOT prison in El Salvador with more than 200 other migrants.
The US government labeled the deportation an “administrative error.”
Ábrego García entered the United States illegally in 2012 as a minor.
Although an immigration court ruled in 2019 that he was deportable, an asylum judge issued an order to protect him from being sent back to El Salvador due to gang persecution.
On June 6, he was brought back to the United States but detained on human trafficking charges related to an encounter with police officers in Tennessee in 2022 when he was traveling with suspected undocumented immigrants. EFE
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