Kilmar Abrego Garcia pleads not guilty to federal human smuggling charges

By Katelyn Polantz, CNN

Nashville, Tennessee (CNN) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran national mistakenly deported from the US three months ago, pleaded not guilty Friday to federal human smuggling charges.

But at the end of an all-day hearing, a federal magistrate judge didn’t decide whether Abrego Garcia’s alleged smuggling of undocumented immigrants through Tennessee in 2022 merits him staying behind bars under the court’s purview to await a criminal trial.

At times, the judge strongly questioned whether the Justice Department had even met bottom-rung criteria to try to claim he even deserved to withstand arguments he should be detained. However, even if the judge determines the Justice Department’s arguments weren’t enough to keep him detained, Abrego Garcia is likely to stay in immigration detention for the foreseeable future.

The allegations against him relate to a traffic stop when Abrego Garcia drove a Chevrolet Suburban with nine Hispanic male passengers through Tennessee in 2022. Prosecutors allege he transported undocumented people in the US on more than 100 trips between Texas, Maryland and other states.

Prosecutors allege that over several years, Abrego Garcia “operated in the illicit world of an international smuggling ring.”

Friday’s hearing, which included extensive testimony from a Homeland Security special agent who investigated human smuggling groups and gathered evidence from troopers on the 2022 traffic stop, was a rocky initial road-test for the prosecutors’ case. In many instances, Abrego Garcia’s defense attorneys cast doubt on the reliability and admissibility of evidence from the traffic stop, and the testimony of cooperating witnesses they called “snitches.”

Robert McGuire, the acting US Attorney in the Middle District of Tennessee who handled the detention arguments Friday, told the judge he believed Abrego Garcia was a danger to the community.

But Abrego Garcia’s defense attorney, Dumaka Shabazz, painted a picture of a government that has overblown its arguments to fit their political needs.

“The only reason they’re calling him dangerous now is to deny him due process and subject him to cruel and unusual punishment, they’ve got to cover that up,” Shabazz said.

For months, the Trump administration has been locked in an intense standoff with the federal judiciary over court orders for the government to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return from El Salvador, which experts, members of Congress and judges have perceived as a Constitutional crisis between the branches of government.

The Tennessee indictment, approved under seal by a grand jury in late May, and accompanying arrest warrant are what enabled the US government to ask the Salvadoran government to return him, officials have said.

Ahead of his arraignment Friday, Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, shared his gratitude for those who are fighting for his release at a news conference. She said Kilmar urges anyone who, like him, remains in immigration custody to “have faith.”

“He says to continue fighting and (we) will be victorious because God is with us,” she said.

Vasquez Sura, who is a US citizen, also stressed that her family should have never been put in this situation.

“Our son, Kilmar Jr., is right now at his kindergarten graduation,” she said through tears. “My son is alone on his big day … and I’m here fighting for my husband – for his Dad – to come back home.”

In a separate federal court proceeding in Maryland, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys are arguing for Trump administration officials to be sanctioned because of their handling of his deportation situation and the lack of information they provided to his legal team following multiple court orders, while Abrego Garcia was in El Salvador this year.

CNN’s Chelsea Bailey contributed to this report.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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