The Lawfare Never Stops: Judge Barbara Holmes Frees Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Magistrate Judge Barbara D. Holmes is the latest lawfare judge flexing her judicial muscle to obstruct President Donald Trump’s agenda and keep illegal alien criminals in the United States.

MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia was released from federal custody Tuesday, the result of a June 22 ruling from Holmes denying the U.S. government’s motion to keep Abrego Garcia detained before his trial.

During an earlier June hearing, Holmes sustained an objection limiting witness testimony regarding Abrego Garcia’s alleged sexual relationships with female passengers, including minors, who he was purportedly helping smuggle into the United States.

Abrego Garcia faces numerous allegations beyond living in the U.S. illegally. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, he solicited child pornography, participated in the murder of a rival gang member’s mother, and engaged in arms and drug trafficking in addition to human trafficking.

The DOJ’s court filing against Abrego Garcia alleges that he was known to abuse the women he trafficked into the country and that “[o]ther co-conspirators were so concerned about the defendant’s abuse towards the undocumented alien females that they confronted him about it on multiple occasions and and told him to stop.”

The DOJ further alleges that 30 percent of the aliens Abrego Garcia smuggled into the U.S. are MS-13 gang members and that he has taken part in human trafficking since at least 2016 and smuggled in roughly 50 illegal aliens per month.

The ruling and Abrego Garcia’s subsequent release defies the Trump administration’s efforts to enforce laws against Abrego Garcia. Holmes’ ruling is at least a temporary victory for the Democrats who have defended Abrego Garcia.

This is also not the only lawfare activism from elements of our nation’s judicial system to protect Abrego Garcia, who entered the U.S. illegally in 2011. Judge Paula Xinis of the District of Maryland, for example, ordered the return of Abrego Garcia to the U.S. from El Salvador, despite the fact that he is an El Salvadorian national. Xinis gave El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele three days to return Abrego Garcia despite the fact that the Central American country is not in her jurisdiction.

Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia also made headlines for ruling that illegal aliens like Abrego Garcia can remain in the United States despite the Trump administration’s effort to deport them under the Aliens Enemies Act. (Marlow’s New York Times bestselling book Breaking the Law exposes Boasberg’s important connection to the Russiagate hoax. That, as well as his long history of using lawfare to interfere with President Trump’s ability to govern, should be grounds for the DOJ to open an investigation into Boasberg.)

Judge Holmes has a long history of Democrat party activism, including donating to Democrat candidates. She donated $750 to Democrats between 1993 and 2007, including $250 to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.

This courtroom sketch depicts U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in court during a detention hearing for Kilmar Abrego Garcia on June 25, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Diego Fishburn)

Prior to her appointment as a magistrate judge in October 2015, Holmes served as president of the Nashville Bar Association in 2002 and on its board of directors from 1999 to 2002 and 2010 to 2015. She planned and hosted the National Association of Women Judges 43rd annual meeting in October 2021, hiring groups such as the “Song Suffragettes” to perform.

Holmes notably served as the Judges Chair for the 2018 Legal Aid Society’s Campaign for Equal Justice. Various branches of the Legal Aid Society, including in Washington, DC and New York, are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and have provided legal services to illegal aliens, even publishing a webpage dedicated to “fighting for racial equity.”

This presents a clear conflict of interest in the Abrego Garcia case and presents a significant risk that Holmes might politicize her perch on the bench to intervene on behalf of an illegal alien.

In a 2017 article highlighting Holmes as an Adams State University outstanding alumna, Holmes said, “I am also inspired by the new citizens I meet during naturalization ceremonies, by their determination, and especially by their appreciation for things that we too often take for granted, like the privileges of citizenship.” 

Holmes is a registered unaffiliated voter in Nashville, Tennessee, who appears to periodically vote in Republican primaries while at the same time casting Democrat ballots in other elections.