WASHINGTON (BN24) — The Trump administration plans to prosecute Kilmar Abrego, a Salvadoran national accused of migrant smuggling, before deporting him again — but this time not to El Salvador, where he was previously sent in violation of a court order, a government attorney told a federal judge Thursday.
Abrego, 29, became a symbol of President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies after he was deported in March to El Salvador despite a 2019 judicial decision barring his removal there due to the risk of persecution. He was imprisoned in El Salvador before being brought back to the United States this month to face federal criminal charges alleging he transported migrants living in the country illegally. He has pleaded not guilty.
A White House spokesperson said Abrego will remain in the United States to stand trial on the smuggling charges before any deportation takes place.
“He will face the full force of the American justice system — including serving time in American prison for the crimes he’s committed,” Abigail Jackson, the spokesperson, wrote in a post on X.
But Abrego’s defense attorney, Sean Hecker, accused the Trump administration of contradicting itself in public statements and court filings.
“No one has any idea whether there are concrete plans for our client, or what those plans are,” Hecker said in a statement Thursday.
Earlier in the day, Justice Department lawyer Jonathan Guynn told a federal judge in Maryland there were no “imminent plans” to deport Abrego. However, if he is removed, Guynn said he would be sent to a third country rather than El Salvador. The specific country was not disclosed.
Abrego’s case has sparked outrage among immigrant rights advocates because he was living in Maryland with his U.S. citizen wife and their young son before his March deportation.
Federal judges in Maryland and Tennessee — where Abrego is separately suing over the initial deportation and facing the smuggling charges — have not yet ruled on his attorneys’ requests to keep him in Maryland and guarantee he will not be removed from the country before trial.
The judge overseeing the criminal proceedings in Tennessee ordered Abrego’s release ahead of trial as soon as Friday. But administration officials have said he will immediately be taken into immigration custody again.
Robert McGuire, the U.S. attorney in Nashville, told Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes at a hearing Wednesday that he would coordinate with Homeland Security officials “as best as I can,” but ultimately could not control where immigration authorities would hold Abrego or whether they would deport him before the criminal proceedings end.
The Justice Department and Homeland Security have declined to comment further.
