An alleged MS-13 gang member and accused human smuggler was released from a Tennessee jail Friday and escorted by private security back to his family in Maryland, as reported by The New York Post.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 30, had been held at the Putnam County Jail since June after the Trump administration facilitated his return from El Salvador to face federal charges of human smuggling.

Image Credit: © JOSH MORGAN/USA TODAY / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, left, meets with Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., in March in El Salvador. The senator flew there to try to secure Abrego Garcia's release after he was mistakenly deported to a prison for terrorists. The president of El Salvador will not free him.

“Today, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is free. He is presently en route to his family in Maryland, after being unlawfully arrested and deported, and then imprisoned, all because of the government’s vindictive attack on a man who had the courage to fight back against the Administration’s continuing assault on the rule of law,” his attorney, Sean Hecker, told Fox17.

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He added, “He is grateful that his access to American courts has provided meaningful due process.”

Court filings earlier this week revealed that Abrego Garcia’s legal team hired a private security company to escort him from Tennessee to Maryland. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes granted his release Friday as his human smuggling case moves forward.

The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee when authorities pulled over his vehicle, which contained eight passengers but no luggage. Local police suspected human smuggling at the time, though no charges were filed immediately.

Abrego Garcia has also faced personal allegations. He was accused of physically abusing his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, a U.S. citizen who has publicly advocated for his innocence.

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Earlier this year, the Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act, grouping him with suspected gang members sent to the nation’s high-security CECOT prison.

Officials later admitted his removal had been an “administrative error,” but maintained that he had been identified by a reliable source as a ranking member of MS-13. Abrego Garcia has denied any gang affiliation.

In July, a federal judge issued an order requiring immigration authorities to wait 72 hours after Abrego Garcia’s release before attempting to deport him again.

The judge also directed that he be returned to the supervision of an ICE field office in Baltimore, which had monitored him prior to his arrest in March.

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Abrego Garcia first entered the United States illegally in 2011. In 2019, he was granted protection from deportation based on claims that he faced threats from MS-13 rivals in El Salvador.

Kristi Noem had this to say:

The case remains ongoing as federal prosecutors pursue charges related to human smuggling.

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