In an effort to prevent deportation, the lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia have requested that the judge in Tennessee postpone his release.
The case of Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported to his native El Salvador by the administration of President Donald Trump in March before being reinstated in the US in June following a Supreme Court order, took its latest turn on Monday.
Due to smuggling allegations relating to a 2022 traffic stop, Abrego Garcia has been imprisoned since his return.
His attorneys have criticized Abrego Garcia, who has become a celebre cause for those who oppose Trump’s mass deportation drive, as “preposterous” and as a derogatory act by US officials.
According to the Monday filing, they also believe that if Abrego Garcia is freed before his trial, he will be detained by immigration agents and deported as well, according to the filing.
In order for Abrego Garcia to “evaluate his options and decide whether additional relief is necessary,” they requested that any release be postponed by 30 days.
After another judge ruled that Abrego Garcia could be released because he did not pose a risk of flying, US District Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. is expected to soon decide whether or not to release him.
Deportation plans are in the works
According to his attorneys, the Trump administration has long claimed that Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident, was a member of an MS-13 gang, which the administration has long refuted.
Abrego Garcia has never been found guilty of a crime or had the charges heard in court.
According to the Trump administration, the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act, which allows for the swift deportation of alleged gang members, included him on a deportation flight to El Salvador.
Afterward, administration officials acknowledged that Abrego Garcia had been deported incorrectly due to an “administrative error” because a 2019 immigration judge had protected him from deportation to El Salvador. In his native country, the judge determined that he faces gang violence threats.
The administration, however, refused to return Abrego Garcia, who entered the country without any documentation for several months.
Officials from Trump’s administration have since stated that Abrego Garcia can be deported to a third country and that the immigration judge’s 2019 order only applies to El Salvador.
The US Supreme Court upheld the Trump administration’s legal right to deport people to far-away third nations, including South Sudan, until a court hears a legal challenge.
Source: Aljazeera
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