The U.S. government would initiate deportation proceedings against Kilmar Abrego Garcia if he's released from jail before he stands trial on human smuggling charges in Tennessee, a Justice Department attorney told a federal judge in Maryland on Monday.
The disclosure by U.S. lawyer Jonathan Guynn contradicts statements by spokespeople for the Justice Department and the White House , who said last month that Abrego Garcia would stand trial and possibly spend time in an American prison before the government moves to deport him.
Guynn made the revelation during a federal court hearing in Maryland, where Abrego Garcia's lawyers have expressed concerns that he would be denied due process once more by the Trump administration before it likely tries to expel him again from the U.S.
Guynn said that U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement would detain Abrego Garcia once he's released from jail in Tennessee and send him to a "third country" that isn't his native El Salvador. However, Guynn said he didn't know which country that would be.
Abrego Garcia became a flashpoint over President Donald Trump's immigration policies when he was deported in March to a notorious megaprison in his native El Salvador. The Trump administration violated a U.S. immigration judge's order in 2019 that shielded Abrego Garcia from deportation to El Salvador because he likely faced persecution there by local gangs that terrorized his family.