Federal judge says Abrego Garcia can be released on bail. That doesn’t mean he will be

A federal judge in Nashville ruled on Sunday that Kilmar Abrego Garcia can be released on bail. But the ruling doesn’t mean that Abrego Garcia will be able to walk free.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes of the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee ordered that Abrego Garcia be released as he awaits trial on human smuggling charges.

In her ruling, Holmes wrote that the government failed to prove that Abrego Garcia was a flight risk. Still, she acknowledged there is something the two sides in the court agree on: Abrego Garcia will likely remain in custody whether she upheld the prosecution’s motion for detention or not.

A Salvadoran native who had been living with his wife and children in Maryland, Abrego Garcia was deported in March to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution.

The 29-year-old, who only recently returned to the U.S. to face these federal charges, may go into Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, custody instead, officials say.

“That suggests the Court’s determination of the detention issues is little more than an academic exercise,” Holmes wrote in her opinion.

Still, she went on to explain, the principle of due process requires everyone accused of a federal crime to be afforded a presumption of innocence.

Prosecutors argue Abrego Garcia conspired to transport thousands of migrants without legal status from Texas across the U.S. between 2016-2025.

The defense says that the charges are to distract from the lack of due process in Abrego Garcia’s case.

Another hearing is set for Wednesday afternoon to set conditions for his release.