The judge acknowledged in her ruling that determining whether Abrego Garcia should be released is "little more than an academic exercise" because ICE will likely detain him.

The government has filed an appeal after a federal judge ordered the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia as he awaits his trial in the U.S. on human trafficking charges. NBC News' Julia Ainsley has details on Abrego Garcia's case and how he could likely be detained by immigration authorities upon his release.

A judge in Tennessee said the Justice Department hasn’t made a convincing case that Kilmar Abrego Garcia should be kept in pretrial detention, though the mistakenly deported man who was returned to the US is likely to remain in federal immigration custody regardless.