An Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said that if Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March, were to be released from pretrial detention, ICE officials have not determined where he would be sent. 

"There's been no decision made, as he is not in ICE custody," Thomas Giles, assistant director for ICE enforcement and removal operations, testified Thursday in federal court in Maryland. Giles was in court after U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis earlier this week ordered the government to produce someone with firsthand knowledge of any third country Abrego Garcia where he could be deported if he were released from custody. 

Giles said ICE would take custody of Abrego Garcia "as soon as possible" and the transfer would take place in Tennessee, where he's being detained. He said that the Salvadoran native's detention location would be "based on bed space availability," and added that ICE lacks the resources to work on the case until he is in its custody.

At that point, a decision about Abrego Garcia's removal would be made within "a few days to a few weeks." Abrego Garcia would "receive a notice of removal…and will get a fear interview if he claims fear of return," if he has a fear "of being returned to a third country," Giles said.

If Abrego Garcia were to receive a notice of removal, up until his deportation, he would be able to express fear about going to a third country, a period of time that could range from "a day to a week," Giles said.

A magistrate judge ruled last month that Abrego Garcia should be released before his trial on human trafficking charges, but in a hearing on June 26, Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn said that if the Salvadoran man were to be released, ICE would begin removal proceedings to a "third country," instead of his native El Salvador. 

Abrego Garcia's lawyers and the Justice Department ultimately agreed that he would remain in the custody of U.S. Marshals at least until a hearing next week, on July 16, and a ruling on the government's bid to revoke his release order.

At the end of the day, Xinis said she was not willing to allow for an "unfettered release" of Abrego Garcia into ICE custody so he can be "spirited away" and removed from the U.S. before she rules. The hearing will continue Friday.

Abrego Garcia's attorney, Sascha Rand, at some points sought to cast doubt on the reliability of Giles' testimony, eliciting from him that he had no involvement in Abrego Garcia's case until this week. He said his prior knowledge of the case was based on media reports, until ICE issued an immigration detainer in June to local officials in Tennessee, after Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S. to face criminal charges. The charges stemmed from a traffic stop in 2019.

Under Rand's questioning, Giles also said that he had never been involved in a successful third-country removal and knew of no other deportation officer in a similar capacity who had been involved in one. 

Earlier Thursday, the Justice Department said it was willing to agree not to remove Abrego Garcia to a third country without following due process, and that it would not remove him to El Salvador without first reopening his immigration case and terminating the court order that bars his deportation to El Salvador. 

But Abrego Garcia's attorneys told U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis that they didn't agree to the government's stipulation because it would not guarantee him advanced notice of his removal or a court hearing in the proper jurisdiction before removal. 

On Monday, after denying the government's motions to dismiss Abrego Garcia's lawsuit over his deportation, Xinis asked the government for a witness with "firsthand knowledge" about where he would be deported if he were to be released from custody. She also said Abrego Garcia should be given "a reasonable amount of time" to challenge his removal.

She expressed some frustration during that hearing with the government's lack of information about Abrego Garcia's short–term fate. "It's like trying to nail Jello to a wall trying to find out what is going to happen next week," Xinis said, adding that it remains within her jurisdiction to ensure that Abrego Garcia is "not spirited away again" to another country without due process.

Xinis said Monday the government could "clarify all of this" in a "binding way," if it stipulated that he would receive due process — that he would not be removed without notice and would have the opportunity to be heard before a court.

On Monday, Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn told the court the government had not yet decided whether to remove Abrego Garcia to a third country or to challenge a previous court order that bars his removal to El Salvador.

• Immigration