A federal judge in Tennessee has cleared the way for Kilmar Abrego Garcia to be released from jail pending a criminal trial there, throwing yet another wrench into the Trump administration’s high-profile prosecution of the 29-year-old from El Salvador. Within hours, a second judge in Maryland blocked Immigration and Customs Enforcement from retaliating by racing to exile him from the country once again.
The one-two punch means that the White House is barred from proceeding with its strategy of bouncing Abrego Garcia around from jail to jail to fulfill its promises that the migrant won’t return to his normal life in Maryland with his family.
U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr. also dealt a blow to President Donald Trump’s repeated assertions that Abrego Garcia is a member of a notorious street gang, ripping into what he called “the government’s poor attempts to tie Abrego to MS-13.”