Wrongfully deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia returns to U.S. — but a new legal nightmare awaits him
A man who was wrongfully deported is now at the center of a national storm.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia
, mistakenly deported earlier this year, has been sent back to the U.S, but the story is much more complicated.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man whose
wrongful deportation
to El Salvador sparked a due process and wills struggle, was returned to the US to face
human smuggling charges
in Tennessee and appeared in federal court Friday, as quoted in a report by NBC News.
What are the new allegations against him?
At a Friday press conference,
Attorney General Pam Bondi
stated he had arrived 'to face justice.' Pam Bondi says Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who was wrongfully deported and lived in Maryland, is back in the country to face federal charges.
The U.S. is indicting 29-year-old Abrego Garcia for trafficking illegal immigrants. Last month, a Tennessee court sealed a two-count indictment alleging that Abrego Garcia conspired to relocate Texas residents deeper into the country over nine years.
He collaborated with co-conspirators and transported MS-13 members, according to the indictment. Kilmar Abrego Garcia will be charged with smuggling'
undocumented migrants
.
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A federal grand jury indicted Abrego Garcia for transporting undocumented migrants inside the United States. Abrego Garcia was described by Bondi as a "danger to our community," as per NBC News.
Garcia and at least five co-conspirators allegedly planned to bring undocumented aliens to the United States from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Ecuador, and other countries between 2016 and 2025, according to the indictment filed on May 21.
According to the indictment, the group would accept money from undocumented immigrants to transport them and communicated via social media and cell phones.
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Trump's Attorney General Pam Bondi now in the line of fire - here's what happened and why it matters
Garcia traveled as a member of a ring that trafficked women, children, guns, and drugs, the grand jury concluded. Garcia was accused by co-conspirators of abusing women he was transporting and contributing to the murder of the mother of a rival gang member. These charges will be brought against Abrego Garcia in Nashville, Tennessee.
Prosecutors say he should be held because he poses a flight risk. Trial testimony will demonstrate that he transported "about 50 undocumented aliens per month for several years," according to a custody memo.
For "each alien" he transports, he risks a potential penalty of 10 years in prison, which prosecutors claim is a life sentence.
According to the Justice Department, Abrego Garcia "furthered his criminal activity" by using MS-13. Citing the results of the grand jury, President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that he should never have been sent back, as per a report by ABC News.
Why was Kilmar Abrego Garcia deported in the first place?
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man who was arrested in the United States on suspicion of being a member of the
MS-13 gang
, has encountered many difficulties, including legal ones.
He has been defended by his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, who claims that he was not engaged in any illegal activity at the time. Garcia and his family have allegedly been the target of a disinformation and defamation campaign by the
Trump administration
.
Was there any real evidence tying him to MS-13 or criminal activity?
Garcia spent 14 years in the United States, working in construction, getting married, and raising three disabled children. ICE stated on March 12, 2025, that his deportation was the result of a "administrative error."
Garcia, however, refuted the accusation and was never prosecuted. He was protected from deportation to El Salvador by a U.S. immigration judge because he was probably persecuted by local gangs there.
How is his legal team responding to the new accusations?
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, Abrego Garcia's lawyer, stated that bringing him back for prosecution "is an abuse of power, not justice." Simon attacked the Trump administration for the new accusations against his client, saying that they would do anything, even the most absurd things, to avoid acknowledging their error.
To justify Garcia's deportation and in response to court orders, the Trump administration has made a number of accusations against him public.
Garcia's return to the United States was ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court and a federal judge in April, but the administration refused to comply.
President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador agreed to send Garcia back after initially refusing to do so, but the administration insisted that it was up to him to do so, as per a report by NBC News.
FAQs
Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia?
He is a Salvadoran immigrant who previously lived in Maryland. He is now accused of smuggling undocumented migrants and is linked to MS-13.
Why is Pam Bondi being criticized?
Critics argue that Bondi mishandled Garcia's deportation and is now using extreme charges to cover up a legal error.
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Hindustan Times
3 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Decision to bring back Abrego Garcia was of Justice department, not mine: Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump said on Saturday it was the Department of Justice, not him, that made the decision to bring back to the US a man mistakenly deported from Maryland to El Salvador. Kilmar Abrego Garcia was flown back to face criminal charges of transporting illegal immigrants within the US Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Friday. His return marked an inflection point in a case seized on by critics of Trump's immigration crackdown as a sign that his administration was disregarding civil liberties in its push to step up deportations of migrants. "Well, that wasn't my decision. The Department of Justice decided to do it that way, and that's fine," Trump told NBC News in an interview when asked about Abrego Garcia's return. Trump added that he had not spoken to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele about the move. Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran whose wife and young child in Maryland are U.S. citizens, appeared in federal court in Nashville on Friday evening. His arraignment was set for June 13, when he will enter a plea, according to local media reports. Until then, he will remain in federal custody. If convicted, he would be deported to El Salvador after serving his sentence, Bondi said. The Trump administration has said Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang, an accusation that his lawyers deny. Abrego Garcia was deported on March 15, more than two months before the charges were filed. He was briefly held in a mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador, despite a U.S. immigration judge's 2019 order barring him from being sent to the Central American nation because he would likely be persecuted by gangs. Trump said he thought it would be "a very easy case" against Abrego Garcia, who he accused of having a "horrible record of abuse" of women. Abrego Garcia's lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, has called the criminal charges 'fantastical.'
Indian Express
4 hours ago
- Indian Express
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is back in the US, charged with human smuggling as attorneys vow ongoing fight
To hear the Trump administration tell it, Kilmar Abrego Garcia smuggled thousands of people across the country who were living in the U.S. illegally, including members of the violent MS-13 gang, long before his mistaken deportation to El Salvador. In allegations made public nearly three months after his removal, U.S. officials say Abrego Garcia abused the women he transported, while a co-conspirator alleged he participated in a gang-related killing in his native El Salvador. Abrego Garcia's wife and lawyers offer a much different story. They say the now 29-year-old had as a teenager fled local gangs that terrorized his family in El Salvador for a life in Maryland. He found work in construction, got married and was raising three children with disabilities before he was mistakenly deported in March. The fight became a political flashpoint in the administration's stepped-up immigration enforcement. Now it returns to the U.S. court system, where Abrego Garcia appeared Friday after being returned from El Salvador. He faces new charges related to a large human smuggling operation and is in federal custody in Tennessee. Speaking to NBC's Kristen Welken in a phone interview Saturday President Donald Trump said it was not his decision to bring Abrego Garcia back. 'The Department of Justice decided to do it that way, and that's fine,' he said. 'There are two ways you could have done it, and they decided to do it that way.' Trump said it should 'be a very easy case.' In announcing Abrego Garcia's return Attorney General Pam Bondi called him 'a smuggler of humans and children and women' in announcing the unsealing of a grand jury indictment. His lawyers say a jury won't believe the 'preposterous' allegations. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who visited Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, said his return to the U.S. was long overdue. 'As I have repeatedly said, this is not about the man, it's about his constitutional rights – and the rights of all,' the Maryland Democrat said in a statement. 'The Administration will now have to make its case in the court of law, as it should have all along.' Abrego Garcia grew up in El Salvador's capital city, San Salvador, according to court documents filed in U.S. immigration court in 2019. His father was a former police officer. His mother, Cecilia, sold pupusas, flat tortilla pouches that hold steaming blends of cheese, beans or pork. The entire family, including his two sisters and brother, ran the business from home, court records state. 'Everyone in the town knew to get their pupusas from 'Pupuseria Cecilia,'' his lawyers wrote. A local gang, Barrio 18, began extorting the family for 'rent money' and threatened to kill his brother Cesar — or force him into their gang — if they weren't paid, court documents state. The family complied but eventually sent Cesar to the U.S. Barrio 18 similarly targeted Abrego Garcia, court records state. When he was 12, the gang threatened to take him away until his father paid them. The family moved but the gang threatened to rape and kill Abrego Garcia's sisters, court records state. The family closed the business, moved again, and eventually sent Abrego Garcia to the U.S. The family never went to the authorities because of rampant police corruption, according to court filings. The gang continued to harass the family in Guatemala, which borders El Salvador. Abrego Garcia fled to the U.S. illegally around 2011, the year he turned 16, according to documents in his immigration case. He joined Cesar, now a U.S. citizen, in Maryland and found construction work. About five years later, Abrego Garcia met Jennifer Vasquez Sura, a U.S. citizen, the records say. In 2018, after she learned she was pregnant, he moved in with her and her two children. They lived in Prince George's County, just outside Washington. In March 2019, Abrego Garcia went to a Home Depot seeking work as a laborer when he and three other men were detained by local police, court records say. They were suspected of being in MS-13 based on tattoos and clothing. A criminal informant told police that Abrego Garcia was in MS-13, court records state but Prince George's County Police did not charge the men. The department said this year it had no further interactions with Abrego Garcia or 'any new intelligence' on him. Abrego Garcia has denied being in MS-13. Although they did not charge him, local police turned Abrego Garcia over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He told a U.S. immigration judge that he would seek asylum and asked to be released because Vasquez Sura was pregnant, according to his immigration case. The Department of Homeland Security alleged Abrego Garcia was a gang member based on the county police's information, according to the case. The immigration judge kept Abrego Garcia in jail as his case continued, the records show. Abrego Garcia later married Vasquez Sura in a Maryland detention center, according to court filings. She gave birth while he was still in jail. In October 2019, an immigration judge denied Abrego Garcia's asylum request but granted him protection from being deported back to El Salvador because of a 'well-founded fear' of gang persecution, according to his case. He was released; ICE did not appeal. Abrego Garcia checked in with ICE yearly while Homeland Security issued him a work permit, his attorneys said in court filings. He joined a union and was employed full time as a sheet metal apprentice. In 2021, Vasquez Sura filed a temporary protection order against Abrego Garcia, stating he punched, scratched and ripped off her shirt during an argument. The case was dismissed weeks later, according to court records. Vasquez Sura said in a statement, after the document's release by the Trump administration, that the couple had worked things out 'privately as a family, including by going to counseling.' 'After surviving domestic violence in a previous relationship, I acted out of caution after a disagreement with Kilmar,' she stated. She added that 'Kilmar has always been a loving partner and father, and I will continue to stand by him.' In 2022, according to a report released by the Trump administration, Abrego Garcia was stopped by the Tennessee Highway Patrol for speeding. The vehicle had eight other people and no luggage, prompting an officer to suspect him of human trafficking, the report stated. Abrego Garcia said he was driving them from Texas to Maryland for construction work, the report stated. No citations were issued. Abrego Garcia's wife said in a statement in April that he sometimes transported groups of workers between job sites, 'so it's entirely plausible he would have been pulled over while driving with others in the vehicle. He was not charged with any crime or cited for any wrongdoing.' The Tennessee Highway Patrol released video body camera footage this May of the 2022 traffic stop. It shows a calm and friendly exchange between officers and Abrego Garcia as well as the officers discussing among themselves their suspicions of human trafficking before sending him on his way. One of the officers said: 'He's hauling these people for money.' Another said he had $1,400 in an envelope. An attorney for Abrego Garcia, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said in a statement after the release that he saw no evidence of a crime in the footage. Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador in March despite the U.S. immigration judge's order. For nearly three months, his attorneys have fought for his return in a federal court in Maryland. The Trump administration described the mistaken removal as 'an administrative error' but insisted he was in MS-13. His abrupt release from El Salvador closes one chapter and opens another in the months-long standoff. The charges he faces stem from the 2022 vehicle stop in Tennessee but the human smuggling indictment lays out a string of allegations that date back to 2016 but are only being disclosed now. A co-conspirator also alleged that Abrego Garcia participated in the killing of a gang member's mother in El Salvador, prosecutors wrote in papers urging the judge to keep him behind bars while he awaits trial. The indictment does not charge him in connection with that allegation. 'This is what American justice looks like,' Attorney General Pam Bondi said in announcing Abrego Garcia's return and the unsealing of a grand jury indictment. Speaking to NBC's Kristen Welker in a telephone interview President Donald Trump said it was not his decision to bring Abrego Garcia back. Abrego Garcia's attorney disagreed. 'There's no way a jury is going to see the evidence and agree that this sheet metal worker is the leader of an international MS-13 smuggling conspiracy,' attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
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First Post
6 hours ago
- First Post
Wrongfully deported man returned to US to face migrant-smuggling charges
Abrego Garcia's homecoming represented a watershed moment in a case cited by critics of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown as evidence that the government was violating civil liberties in its quest to increase deportations read more Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant who lived in the US legally with a work permit and was erroneously deported to El Salvador, is seen wearing a Chicago Bulls hat, in this handout image obtained by Reuters on April 9, 2025. File Photo/Reuters Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man wrongfully deported from Maryland to El Salvador by the Trump administration, has been flown back to the United States to face criminal charges for transporting illegal aliens within the country, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Friday. Abrego Garcia's homecoming represented a watershed moment in a case cited by critics of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown as evidence that the government was violating civil liberties in its quest to increase deportations. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Abrego Garcia, 29, a Salvadoran whose wife and young child in Maryland are US citizens, appeared in federal court in Nashville on Friday evening. His arraignment was set for June 13, when he will enter a plea, according to local media reports. Until then, he will remain in federal custody. If convicted, he would be deported to El Salvador after serving his sentence, Bondi said. The Trump administration has said Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang, an accusation that his lawyers deny. Officials on Friday portrayed the indictment of Abrego Garcia by a federal grand jury in Tennessee as vindication of their approach to immigration enforcement. 'The man has a horrible past, and I could see a decision being made, bring him back, show everybody how horrible this guy is,' Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding that it was the Justice Department that decided to bring Abrego Garcia back. According to the indictment, Abrego Garcia worked with at least five co-conspirators as part of a smuggling ring to bring immigrants to the United States illegally, then transport them from the US-Mexico border to destinations in the country. Abrego Garcia often picked up migrants in Houston, making more than 100 trips between Texas and Maryland between 2016 and 2025, the indictment alleges. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD It also accuses Abrego Garcia of transporting firearms and drugs. According to the indictment, one of Abrego Garcia's co-conspirators belonging to the same ring was involved in the transportation of migrants whose tractor trailer overturned in Mexico in 2021, resulting in 50 deaths. Abrego Garcia's lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, called the criminal charges 'fantastical' and a 'kitchen sink' of allegations. 'This is all based on the statements of individuals who are currently either facing prosecution or in federal prison,' he said. 'I want to know what they offered those people.' The indictment also led to a high-level resignation in the federal prosecutor's office in Nashville, with news that Ben Schrader, chief of the criminal division for the Middle District of Tennessee, had resigned in protest. A 15-year veteran of the US Attorney's Office, Schrader had grown increasingly uncomfortable with the administration's actions, and the indictment of Abrego Garcia was 'the final straw,' a person familiar with the situation told Reuters. Schrader declined comment. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Schrader had posted notice of his resignation on LinkedIn last month, around the time the indictment was filed under seal, but he did not give a reason. Abrego Garcia was deported on March 15, more than two months before the charges were filed. He was briefly held in a mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, despite a US immigration judge's 2019 order barring him from being sent to El Salvador because he would likely be persecuted by gangs. Bondi said Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele had agreed to return Abrego Garcia after US officials presented his government with an arrest warrant. 'The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring,' she told a press conference. In a court filing on Friday, federal prosecutors asked a judge to keep Abrego Garcia detained pending trial. Citing an unnamed co-conspirator, prosecutors said Abrego Garcia joined MS-13 in El Salvador by murdering a rival gang member's mother. The indictment does not charge Abrego Garcia with murder. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Abrego Garcia could face 10 years in prison for each migrant he is convicted of transporting, prosecutors said, a punishment that potentially could keep him incarcerated for the rest of his life. Tensions with the courts The case has become a symbol of escalating tensions between the Trump administration and the judiciary, which has blocked a number of the president's signature policies. More recently, the US Supreme Court has backed Trump's hardline approach to immigration in other cases. After Abrego Garcia's lawyers challenged the basis for his deportation, the US Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return, with liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor saying the government had cited no basis for what she called his 'warrantless arrest.' US District Judge Paula Xinis has opened a probe into what, if anything, the Trump administration had done to secure his return, after Abrego Garcia's lawyers accused officials of stonewalling their requests for information. That led to concerns among Trump's critics that his administration would openly defy court orders. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In a court filing on Friday, Justice Department lawyers told Xinis that Abrego Garcia's return meant they were in compliance with the order to facilitate bringing him back to the US Sandoval-Moshenberg said Abrego Garcia's return did not mean the government was in compliance, asserting that his client must be placed in immigration proceedings before the same judge who handled his 2019 case. Chris Van Hollen, a Democratic US senator from Maryland who visited Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, said in a statement on Friday that the Trump administration has 'finally relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and the due process rights afforded to everyone in the United States.' 'The administration will now have to make its case in the court of law, as it should have all along,' Van Hollen said.
