Abrego Garcia Is Released From Custody, But Threat of Deportation Looms

In the short-term, the move from a Tennessee jail is a win for Abrego Garcia, bringing him back to the state where he was living with his family before immigration officials picked him up in March—and then mistakenly deported him to El Salvador in violation of an immigration court order. But his release also clears the way for the government to deport the 30-year-old Salvadoran again—this time to an unfamiliar country—within days.

“We will not stop fighting till this Salvadoran man faces justice and is OUT of our country,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Friday.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said Friday that the administration had attacked him vindictively. “He is grateful that his access to American courts has provided meaningful due process,” they said in a statement.

The immigrant entered the U.S. without authorization when he was a teenager and was living in a suburb of Washington, D.C. There is little stopping the administration from sending him to any of the countries that have agreed to accept immigrants expelled from the U.S., so long as that country isn’t El Salvador. An immigration judge previously said he couldn’t be sent to his native country because a gang had targeted his family’s pupusa business.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in April ordered the administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return from the notorious Salvadoran mega-prison where he had been flown without notice. Administration officials in response said their hands were tied by diplomatic considerations and that his fate was in the hands of the Salvadoran government.

In June, the Justice Department announced an indictment against Abrego Garcia, and brought him to Tennessee on human smuggling charges. Prosecutors allege he participated in a scheme to transport illegal immigrants across the U.S.

Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty, and a trial is set for January. A pair of judges have voiced initial skepticism of the prosecution. “The reliability of the evidence is questionable, which detracts from the weight it will be given,” Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes wrote in June.

U.S. Judge Waverly Crenshaw ordered Abrego Garcia be freed on bail while awaiting trial.

The Trump administration has repeatedly said that Abrego Garcia “will never walk America’s streets again.” If he is not in jail before trial, government lawyers said in court proceedings, immigration officers would quickly take him into their custody and fly him to a country such as Mexico or South Sudan.

Xinis, the judge who in July ordered him returned to Maryland, has required the government to give Abrego Garcia and his lawyers at least 72 hours notice of plans to send him to another country, so he has a chance to try to challenge it.

One of the conditions of his release was that the U.S. Marshals fitted him with a GPS monitor. His lawyers had previously said Abrego Garcia would make the 700-mile trip over the weekend, driven by a private security firm they had hired. On Friday, the magistrate judge overseeing Abrego Garcia’s release said he was being released into the custody of his brother.

The government has agreed that Abrego Garcia could take up to 48 hours to get to Maryland.

It isn’t clear how long Abrego Garcia will be free to see his family—including his wife and children—after his arrival there. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has an active order allowing them to supervise him in Baltimore while they prepare to deport him.

Write to Mariah Timms at mariah.timms@wsj.com and Louise Radnofsky at louise.radnofsky@wsj.com