Judge says government ‘failed’ to prove wrongly deported man poses a danger

A federal judge on Sunday ruled that Kilmar Abrego García, a Maryland resident wrongly deported to El Salvador, is eligible for release from criminal custody, saying the government’s allegations that he is a flight risk or a danger to the community are based on problematic testimony and scenarios that “defy common sense.”

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara D. Holmes said the government “failed” to prove the Trump administration’s allegations that Abrego García poses enough of a danger to society that he should be held while he awaits trial on charges that he participated in a migrant smuggling ring for nearly a decade. She issued her 51-page decision more than a week after a highly unusual, hours-long hearing in U.S. District Court in Nashville earlier this month.