WASHINGTON: Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the person mistakenly deported from Maryland to El Salvador by the Trump administration, was flown again to the USA to face felony expenses of transporting unlawful immigrants throughout the nation, Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi mentioned on Friday (Jun 6).
Abrego Garcia’s return marks a turning level in a case that grew to become a flashpoint for critics of President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration insurance policies, who pointed to it as a sign that the administration was disregarding civil liberties in its push to step up deportations.
The 29-year-old Salvadoran, whose spouse and younger youngster in Maryland are US residents, appeared in federal court docket in Nashville on Friday night.
His arraignment was set for Jun 13, when he’ll enter a plea, based on native media studies. Till then, he’ll stay in federal custody.
If he’s convicted, he can be deported to El Salvador after serving his sentence, Bondi mentioned.
The Trump administration has mentioned Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang, an accusation that his legal professionals deny.
Officers on Friday portrayed the indictment of Abrego Garcia by a grand jury in Tennessee as vindication of their strategy to immigration enforcement.
“The person has a horrible previous and I might see a choice being made, carry him again, present all people how horrible this man is,” Trump instructed reporters aboard Air Pressure One, including that it was the US Justice Division that determined to carry Abrego Garcia again.
In accordance with the indictment, Abrego Garcia labored with not less than 5 co-conspirators as a part of a smuggling ring to carry immigrants to the US illegally, after which transport them from the US-Mexico border to different locations within the nation.
Abrego Garcia usually picked up migrants in Houston, and made greater than 100 journeys between Texas and Maryland between 2016 and 2025, the indictment mentioned. The indictment additionally alleges Abrego Garcia transported firearms and medicines.
In accordance with the indictment, one in all Abrego Garcia’s co-conspirators belonging to the identical ring was concerned within the transportation of migrants whose tractor trailer overturned in Mexico in 2021, leading to 50 deaths.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, referred to as the felony expenses “fantastical” and a “kitchen sink” of allegations.
“That is all based mostly on the statements of people who’re at the moment both dealing with prosecution or in federal jail,” he mentioned. “I need to know what they supplied these folks.”
Abrego Garcia was deported on Mar 15, greater than two months earlier than the fees have been filed. He was briefly held in a mega-prison referred to as the Terrorism Confinement Middle (CECOT), regardless of an immigration decide’s 2019 order barring him from being despatched to El Salvador as a result of he would possible be persecuted by gangs.
At a press convention, Bondi mentioned Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele had agreed to return Abrego Garcia after US officers offered his authorities with an arrest warrant.
“The grand jury discovered that over the previous 9 years, Abrego Garcia has performed a major function in an alien smuggling ring,” Bondi mentioned at a press convention.
In a court docket submitting on Friday, federal prosecutors requested a decide to have Abrego Garcia detained pending trial. They mentioned Abrego Garcia bought into MS-13 in El Salvador by murdering a rival gang member’s mom, citing a co-conspirator whom they didn’t identify.
The indictment didn’t cost Abrego Garcia with homicide. If convicted, Abrego Garcia might face 10 years in jail for every migrant he transported, prosecutors mentioned.
Which means he could possibly be locked away for the remainder of his life, they mentioned.
