Live updates: Kilmar Abrego Garcia to appear in Nashville court on human smuggling charges
The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in Nashville.
During the hearing, Abrego Garcia will enter a plea, and attorneys will argue whether he should remain in detention pretrial. That decision will be left to U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes.
Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old sheet metal worker from Maryland, was returned to the U.S. from El Salvador June 6 after he was indicted in the U.S District Court in Nashville on one count of conspiracy to transport aliens and one count of unlawful transportation of undocumented aliens.
He appeared in an after-hours court hearing that day, when he was read the charges against him, media witnesses reported.
The Tennessean will have multiple reporters and photographers in the courtroom and at nearby protests, updating this article as developments occur. Check back this morning.
More: Read the indictment against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, charged in Tennessee
This case is separate from the civil case over Abrego Garcia's deportation.
Prosecutors say between 2016 and 2025, Abrego Garcia was part of a conspiracy to illegally transport undocumented migrants from various countries in Central and South America into and within the U.S. They say Abrego Garcia's role was generally to pick up immigrants in the Houston area and drive them to other locations in the U.S.
The charges were filed in the Middle District of Tennessee because he was stopped in Cookeville in 2022 driving a Chevrolet Suburban with nine men the indictment suggests were undocumented immigrants. The Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers who pulled him over allowed him to leave, giving him only a warning for driving on an expired license.
An hour before the hearing, protesters are expected to march to the Fred D. Thompson Courthouse. The march will be held to 'defend due process, protect vulnerable communities, and expose the dangerous authoritarianism driving these abuses,' a news release from the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, which organized the march, said.
More protesters are expected to show up directly at the courthouse.
A recent fire at the parking garage at the public library branch across from the courthouse will make parking more difficult than usual.
Abrego Garcia has been in the custody of the U.S. Marshals for the last week since his first court appearance, but it's not publicly known where. The Marshals said they do not release information on the location of pretrial detainees.
The Marshals will bring Abrego Garcia to the courthouse before the hearing begins.
Have questions about the justice system? Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him with questions, tips or story ideas at emealins@tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Live updates: Kilmar Abrego Garcia to appear in Nashville court
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- CBS News
El Salvador president denies Kilmar Abrego Garcia's allegations of beatings, abuse in prison
Kilmar Abrego Garcia's lawyers concerned that he could be deported again The president of El Salvador is refuting allegations made by Kilmar Abrego Garcia - the man whose mistaken deportation by the Trump administration has fueled a monthslong legal saga – in which he said he was beaten and subject to psychological torture while in prison in the Central American country. President Nayib Bukele, in a post on the social media platform X, wrote that Abrego Garcia "wasn't tortured, nor did he lose weight." He included pictures and video of Abrego Garcia in a detention cell at El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT," earlier this year. "If he'd been tortured, sleep-deprived, and starved, why does he look so well in every picture?" Bukele wrote. Sen. Van Hollen, right, speaks with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in a hotel restaurant in San Salvador, El Salvador, April 17, 2025. Press Office Senator Van Hollen, via AP This week, Abrego Garcia alleged in a new legal filing that he faced "psychological torture" and "severe beatings" after he was sent to the notorious supermax prison the Trump administration had mistakenly deported him to in March. In the court documents filed Wednesday, Abrego Garcia said he was kicked and hit so often after his arrival that by the following day, he had visible bruises and lumps all over his body. He said he and 20 others were forced to kneel all night long and guards hit anyone who fell. Abrego Garcia's lawyers have previously described his more than three-week stint at CECOT as "torture." In the new court documents, Abrego Garcia said detainees at CECOT "were confined to metal bunks with no mattresses in an overcrowded cell with no windows, bright lights that remained on 24 hours a day, and minimal access to sanitation." After more than three weeks, Abrego Garcia alleged he was transferred to a different area and was "photographed with mattresses and better food" in what he believed to be staged images. Abrego Garcia's description falls in line with accounts from other Salvadorans who were detained under Bukele's state of emergency, where the government has detained more than 1% of the Central American nation's population in its war on the country's gangs. Hundreds of people have died in the prisons, according to human rights groups, which have also documented cases of torture and deteriorated conditions. Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, was living in Maryland when he was mistakenly deported and became a flashpoint in President Trump's immigration crackdown. He was flown back to the U.S. in early June — months after a Maryland judge ordered his return — and promptly charged with human smuggling in Tennessee The new details of Abrego Garcia's incarceration in El Salvador were added to a lawsuit against the Trump administration that Abrego Garcia's wife filed in Maryland federal court after he was deported. The Trump administration has asked a federal judge in Maryland to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that it is now moot because the government returned him to the United States as ordered by the court.
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2 days ago
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Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose illegal deportation by the Trump administration captured national attention, is now offering a chilling account of his mistreatment in a Salvadoran prison, claiming he suffered 'severe beatings,' sleep deprivation, malnutrition and other forms of torture at the hands of his jailers. Abrego, a native of El Salvador, revealed details of his time in the country's notorious anti-terrorism prison in a legal filing Wednesday. It's the first time he has provided a firsthand description of his experience after the Trump administration summarily deported him there in March in violation of a court order. The administration for months resisted a judge's command to bring Abrego back to the United States. But last month, federal prosecutors secured an indictment against him in Tennessee for human smuggling. At that point, the administration arranged for him to be released from Salvadoran custody and returned to the U.S. to face those charges. 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And he reported witnessing and suffering harrowing violence and abuse. Abrego's lawyers presented his account in a 40-page proposed amendment to a lawsuit over his deportation. Asked about the court filing, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security accused the media of "falling all over themselves to defend Kilmar Abrego Garcia." "The media's sympathetic narrative about this criminal illegal gang member has completely fallen apart, yet they continue to peddle his sob story," the spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin, said. Abrego allegedly entered the U.S. illegally around 2011 and had lived in Maryland for more than a decade when the Trump administration deported him. The deportation violated a 2019 order from an immigration judge who barred the U.S. from sending Abrego to El Salvador because he faced a danger of gang violence there. The Supreme Court noted that the deportation was 'illegal' after a Justice Department lawyer admitted that the deportation had been a mistake. In the new court filing, Abrego described being the first person off an airplane in El Salvador after the Trump administration flew him there with more than 200 men on March 15. He recalled bright lights illuminating the airfield and cameras trained on him while officials forcefully guided him — shackled in chains — to a bus. The next day, Bukele triumphantly circulated cinematically edited videos of the deportees being handed over to Salvadoran authorities. The officials repeatedly struck Abrego in the head, his lawyers wrote, summarizing his account. He observed a U.S. immigration agent communicating with the Salvadoran officials 'to confirm the identities of the Salvadoran nationals on board before the bus departed,' the lawyers continued. 'Upon arrival at CECOT, the detainees were greeted by a prison official who stated, 'Welcome to CECOT. Whoever enters here doesn't leave,'' according to the account. 'Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was then forced to strip, issued prison clothing, and subjected to physical abuse including being kicked in the legs with boots and struck on his head and arms to make him change clothes faster. His head was shaved with a zero razor, and he was frog-marched to cell 15, being struck with wooden batons along the way.' 'By the following day, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia had visible bruises and lumps all over his body,' his lawyers continued. Abrego said he shared a cell with 20 other people, who were forced to kneel overnight, 'with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion.' 'During this time, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was denied bathroom access and soiled himself,' according to the account. 'The detainees were confined to metal bunks with no mattresses in an overcrowded cell with no windows, bright lights that remained on 24 hours a day, and minimal access to sanitation.' His lawyers also described 'psychological torture,' with prison officials telling Abrego he would be moved to cells with gang members. Abrego indicated he witnessed violence among inmates in those cells, with prison guards declining to intervene. Abrego was held incommunicado for over a month with no ability to contact his family or consult a lawyer, according to the account. His first contact with the outside world occurred when Van Hollen visited him on April 17, his lawyers wrote. The new court filing also seeks to undercut the Trump administration's claims about Abrego, including the assertion that he is an MS-13 gang member. President Donald Trump has repeatedly made such a claim, even falsely insisting in a TV interview that Abrego has 'MS-13' tattooed on the knuckles of his left hand. However, Abrego claims prison officials at CECOT with extensive experience dealing with MS-13 and other gangs examined his tattoos and saw nothing to signify gang membership. 'The Salvadoran authorities recognized that Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was not affiliated with any gang and, at around this time, prison officials explicitly acknowledged that Plaintiff Abrego Garcia's tattoos were not gang-related, telling him 'your tattoos are fine,'' Abrego's lawyers wrote in the submission to Greenbelt, Maryland-based U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis. Xinis herself has also said that the Justice Department failed to produce evidence to support its allegation that Abrego is affiliated with the gang. Abrego's new court filing also alleges that in the days after Abrego was arrested in Maryland in March, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials lied to him by indicating he'd see a judge before he'd be deported. Those false assurances were part of a deliberate effort 'to prevent him from taking actions to assert his legal rights,' the new complaint says. Abrego is currently detained in Tennessee while his criminal case is pending. Though a federal magistrate judge ordered his release from custody last month, Abrego asked to remain incarcerated until at least mid-July, following conflicting statements from the Trump administration about whether it would rapidly deport him once again — this time to a country other than El Salvador.
