US brings Kilmar Ábrego García, mistakenly deported to El Salvador, back to face charges
Kilmar Ábrego García, a 29-year-old from El Salvador who was mistakenly deported in March, has been returned to the US to face prosecution on two federal criminal charges.He has been accused of participating in a trafficking conspiracy over several years to move people from Texas to other parts of the country. El Salvador agreed to release Mr Ábrego García after the US presented it with an arrest warrant, Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Friday. His lawyer has called the charges "preposterous".The White House had been resisting a US Supreme Court order from April to "facilitate" his return after he was sent to a mega-jail in El Salvador alongside more than 250 other deportees.
In a two-count grand jury indictment, sealed by a Tennessee court last month, Mr Ábrego García was charged with one count of conspiracy to transport aliens and a second count of unlawful transportation of undocumented aliens.Bondi said the grand jury found that Mr Ábrego García had played a "significant role" in an alien smuggling ring - bringing in thousands of illegal immigrants to the US.The indictment additionally alleges he transported members of MS-13, designated a foreign terrorist organisation by the US. The Trump administration had previously alleged Mr Ábrego García was a member of the transnational Salvadorian gang, which he has denied. Bondi also accused Mr Ábrego García of trafficking weapons and narcotics into the US for the gang. Mr Ábrego García's lawyers have previously argued that he has never been convicted of any criminal offence, including gang membership, in the US or in El Salvador.Simon Sandoval Moshenberg, one of his attorneys, called the charges "preposterous" and the events an "abuse of power" at a Friday news conference. Mr Ábrego García entered the US illegally as a teenager from El Salvador. In 2019, he was arrested with three other men in Maryland and detained by federal immigration authorities.But an immigration judge granted him protection from deportation on the grounds that he might be at risk of persecution from local gangs in his home countryWhat is the 1798 law that Trump used to deport migrants?What we know about Kilmar Abrego Garcia and MS-13 allegationsOn 15 March, he was deported amid an immigration crackdown form the Trump administration, after President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a war-time law that allows presidents to detain or deport the natives and citizens of an enemy country.Mr Ábrego García was taken to the notorious mega-prison Cecot in El Salvador, known for its brutal conditions. While government lawyers initially said he was taken there as a result of "administrative error", the Trump administration refused to order his return. Whether or not the government had to "facilitate" his return to his home in the US state of Maryland became the subject of a weeks-long legal and political battle.After Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen demanded to see Mr Ábrego García in El Salvador, he was released to a different prison in that country. El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, a close ally of Trump, said on social media on Friday that if the administration "request the return of a gang member to face charges, of course we wouldn't refuse". Mr Ábrego García is expected to make an initial appearance at a Tennessee court on Friday, where US will request he be held in pretrial custody "because he poses a danger to the community and a serious risk of flight", according to the detention motion.
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