White House declares Kilmar Ábrego García will 'never go free', despite judge ordering his release
23 June 2025, 17:33
A man who was wrongly deported from the US before being brought back to face criminal charges will "never go free", despite a judge ordering his release, the Trump administration has said.
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Kilmar Ábrego García was deported in March as Donald Trump launched an unprecedented immigration crackdown.
It quickly became clear he had been removed in error, but the White House claimed they were unable to bring him back.
Mr García was eventually returned to Tennessee, where he was charged with human smuggling.
The judge overseeing the case said he should be released while he awaits trial, but the Department of Homeland Security has today reaffirmed its intentions for him to remain detained.
"Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a dangerous criminal illegal alien," Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a social media post.
"We have said it for months and it remains true to this day: he will never go free on American soil."
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, was expelled from the US despite being granted protection by an immigration judge, who found he was likely to be persecuted by local gangs if returned to his home country.
According to the indictment, Abrego Garcia worked with at least five co-conspirators to bring immigrants into the US illegally and transport them from the border to other destinations across the country.
Critics point to the deportation of Abrego Garcia as an example of the failures of Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration policies.
US District Judge Paula Xinis has opened a probe into what the Trump administration did — or failed to do — to secure his return, after officials were accused of stonewalling his lawyer's requests for information.
In response, officials alleged that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang — claims his lawyers have strongly denied.