Kilmar Abrego Garcia pleaded not responsible Friday to human smuggling costs, one week after he was introduced again to the Unites States from detention in El Salvador.
The 29-year-old entered his 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 hundreds of noncitizens from Mexico and Central America, together with some kids, in trade for hundreds of {dollars}.
Following his plea, the choose started listening to arguments over whether or not to carry a pre-trial detention listening to to be able to decide if Abrego Garcia ought to proceed to be held in custody pending trial. That listening to, if authorised, would happen subsequent.
The federal government’s first witness in making its case for detention was Homeland Safety particular agent Pete Joseph, who testified about his investigation into the 2022 traffic stop the place Abrego Garcia was pulled over for rushing in a automobile with eight passengers, and informed police that they had been working building in Missouri.
As ABC Information previously reported, the prison investigation that led to the fees was launched in April as federal authorities started to scrutinize the cease.
Abrego Garcia has been the topic of a chronic 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 resulting from concern of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the prison 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 dwelling 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.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant on this handout picture obtained by Reuters on April 9, 2025.
Abrego Garcia Household by way of Reuters
In a court filing on Monday, prosecutors acknowledged that Abrego Garcia would virtually actually be instantly taken in custody by ICE if U.S. Justice of the Peace Decide Barbara Holmes was to disclaim their movement for pre-trial detention — however they requested the court docket to contemplate, for the sake of argument, the likelihood that he “would have an unlimited cause to flee” if he weren’t instantly detained by ICE.
In addition they argued that Abrego-Garcia’s alleged MS-13 ties put him liable to trying to impede justice or intimidate potential witnesses towards him, together with his alleged co-conspirators.
“The US would submit that a minimum of one co-conspirator has described that the Defendant has beforehand used his membership in MS-13 not simply to facilitate his criminality within the smuggling conspiracy but in addition 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 threat of detection and weren’t a objective of the general conspiracy,” the federal government’s 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 supplies 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 threat, and stated that the federal government “factors to zero info” suggesting Abrego Garcia has a historical past of evading arrest, has any prior restrictions, or has “systematically engaged in worldwide journey within the latest previous.”
The attorneys additionally argued that there isn’t a “severe threat” 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 threat” of obstructive conduct.
“[The] authorities shouldn’t be entitled to hunt detention on this case, Mr. Abrego Garcia respectfully asks the Court docket to disclaim the federal government’s movement for detention,” the attorneys stated.
