Kilmar Abrego Garcia returns to US to face criminal charges
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, has landed in the United States to face criminal charges, according to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
An indictment, which was recently filed in the U.S. District Court Middle District of Tennessee, reports that Abrego Garcia, 29, conspired to bring undocumented migrants to the United States from around 2016 to 2025.
Body cam footage released from 2022 THP traffic stop of Maryland man deported to El Salvador
Abrego Garcia and co-conspirators reportedly collected financial payments for illegal transportation and knowingly transferred the money between one another. The indictment alleges that the 29-year-old used his status in MS-13 to further his criminal activity.
According to the court filing, Abrego Garcia also participated in varying transportation routes within the United States. Co-conspirators also alleged that Abrego Garcia trafficked narcotics, abused women and had been associated with child sexual abuse, Bondi said.
garcia indictmentDownload
On May 2, the Tennessee Highway Patrol released video of traffic stop dated Nov. 30, 2022, which involved Abrego Garcia in Cookeville. The 29-year-old was reportedly pulled over for speeding in a vehicle with eight passengers and told state troopers they'd been working in Missouri.
As seen on video, THP troopers could be heard discussing among themselves their suspicions of human trafficking since the group was traveling without luggage. However, the 29-year-old was not charged with a crime that day.
When asked about what's changed since the Department of Homeland Security declined to charge Abrego Garcia, Bondi told reporters that it's due to Trump's presidency.
'Thanks to the bright light that has been shined on Abrego Garcia, this investigation continued with actually amazing police work and we were able to track this case and stop this international smuggling ring from continuing,' Bondi said, citing 'recently found facts.'
The indictment alleges that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia transported undocumented migrants and children on approximately more than 100 trips between Texas to Maryland and other states. Bondi claimed that this was his 'full-time job' and that he was associated with a larger 'smuggling' group.
'The defendant traded the innocence of children for profit,' Bondi said.
⏩
Abrego Garcia has since been charged with 'conspiracy to transport illegal aliens and unlawful transportation of undocumented aliens.'
An arrest warrant, which was signed in Nashville and obtained by News 2, states that Abrego Garcia was to be arrested and brought before United States magistrate judge.
Bondi said in a Friday press conference that the U.S. had presented El Salvador with an arrest warrant and they agreed to return him to the U.S.
'This is what American justice looks like,' Bondi said.
Bondi added that upon completion of his sentence, officials anticipate that he will be returned to El Salvador.
The moves come more than two months after the Trump administration acknowledged in court filings that Abrego Garcia's deportation was due to an 'administrative error.'
No additional details were immediately released. The Tennessee Attorney General declined to comment on the matter.
📲 Download the News 2 app to stay updated on the go.📧 Sign up for WKRN email alerts to have breaking news sent to your inbox.💻 for Nashville, TN and all of Middle Tennessee.
This is a developing story. WKRN News 2 will continue to update this article as new information becomes available.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump Admin Surrenders to Judges and Returns Abrego Garcia
The Maryland father mistakenly deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration is back in the United States. Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed Kilmar Abrego Garcia had landed on Friday, and he will now face criminal charges for allegedly transporting illegal immigrants. 'He was a smuggler of humans, and women, and children,' she said. Abrego Garcia's return appears to be yet another about-face by Donald Trump after the White House insisted he would not be allowed back into the country. The stunning move is being seen as a way out for the administration after being hauled over the coals by judges for ignoring court orders. The indictment, filed in Nashville, Tennessee, accuses the 29-year-old of a conspiracy to move undocumented immigrants from Texas to other parts of the country. Abrego Garcia, who lived with his wife and children in Maryland, has been accused of being involved in smuggling thousands of foreign citizens from Mexico and Central America. Some were said to be children. The married father was deported to El Salvador's top security CECOT prison in March as part of the Trump administration's crackdown on undocumented immigrants. Democratic Party lawmakers have blasted the deportation after a Department of Justice official admitted Abrego Garcia was removed from the country by mistake. Donald Trump and White House advisers, including Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, insisted that the Maryland resident was a member of the violent MS-13 crime gang. His family and lawyers have denied that's the case. Miller claimed that if Abrego Garcia ever returned to America, he would be arrested and kicked out of the country a second time. The federal filing was reportedly entered under seal in Tennessee last month. In a statement to ABC News, Abrego Garcia's attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said they are determined to get a fair trial. 'From the beginning, this case has made one thing painfully clear: The government had the power to bring him back at any time. Instead, they chose to play games with the court and with a man's life,' he said. 'We're not just fighting for Kilmar, we're fighting to ensure due process rights are protected for everyone. Because tomorrow, this could be any one of us, if we let power go unchecked, if we ignore our Constitution.' NBC News reported that a federal grand jury has indicted Abrego Garcia on two counts, conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal aliens for financial gains and the unlawful transportation of illegal aliens for financial gains. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said if convicted, Abrego Garcia will be sentenced to a U.S. prison. He will serve that sentence and then be removed from the U.S. The administration acknowledged in court papers that a mistake had been made and that a 2019 court order shielding Abrego Garcia from deportation had been violated. He feared persecution from gangs if he returned to El Salvador. But the White House insisted the father's gang affiliations should bar him from the U.S. in spite of the error. Abrego Garcia has been in the country since illegally entering at the age of 13 and has been living in Maryland for 13 years. He has one child with his wife, Vasquez Sura, a U.S. citizen.
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Jesse Watters Trots Out Dehumanizing Analogy for Kilmar Abrego Garcia's Return
Fox News host Jesse Watters criticized the Trump administration for bringing Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the United States, saying the wrongly deported man's return was like taking a rental car to the car wash. 'I don't think they should have brought him back,' Watters said on The Five, shortly after news broke that Abrego Garcia is facing two counts of human smuggling in Tennessee. 'This is a national security situation. The guy is a designated terrorist. He belongs somewhere else. What are we going to do? We're going to spend two years and $50 million trying this guy and imprisoning this guy, feeding him, giving him healthcare, and then flying him home?' Watters said incredulously. 'This is like renting a car and taking it to a car wash before you return it,' he added. 'What's the point? It's not your car, and it's going back anyway.' Attorney General Pam Bondi said Abrego Garcia would first serve time in a U.S. prison if convicted, then be removed from the country once again. Garcia had been held in El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center even after the Trump administration admitted his deportation was an 'administrative error.' When the Supreme Court ordered that it 'facilitate' his return, the White House insisted that it was powerless to do so. Friday's events proved the administration was lying, The Five co-host Jessica Tarlov said Friday. '[White House Press Secretary] Karoline Leavitt—as well as other members of the administration, from the president himself to Kristi Noem—lied to the American people when they said they couldn't bring him back,' Tarlov said. 'Well, I guess you could get him back.' Andrew Rossman, a lawyer for Abrego Garcia, made the same point. 'Today's action proves what we've known all along—that the administration had the ability to bring him back and just refused to do so,' he told The New York Times. 'It's now up to our judicial system to see that Mr. Abrego Garcia receives the due process that the Constitution guarantees to all persons.' Abrego Garcia was sent to Tennessee, where the indictment was filed in May and unsealed Friday. The Times reports that an imprisoned man's information about Abrego Garcia moved the case forward. Prosecutors couldn't agree how to proceed, however, and one ended up resigning.
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Thai hostage recovered from southern Gaza in military operation
The body of a Thai hostage, Nattapong Pinta, who was abducted alive during the October 7 attacks was recovered from southern Gaza in a military operation on Friday, according to a statement from the Israeli military and the Shin Bet security service. The announcement comes just days after Israel recovered the bodies of two Israeli-American hostages from Gaza. Pinta, 35, was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel where he had been working in agriculture, according to an Israeli military official, who said it is estimated that he was killed during the first months of captivity. Pinta was a husband and father working in Israel to support his family in Thailand, the official said. 'We will not rest until all the hostages, living and deceased, are returned home,' Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. Pinta was abducted by the Mujahideen, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, a militant group that took part in the Hamas-led October 7 terror attack on Israel. The IDF said it is the same organization that kidnapped the Bibas family and killed Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas, the mother and two young sons who became the most prominent among Hamas' captives. CNN has approached the Thai authorities for comment. Earlier this week, Israel announced that the bodies of Judy Winston-Haggai, 70, and Gadi Haggai, 72, were recovered from southern Gaza. The two were also taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz. The couple had four children and seven grandchildren. The retrieval of Pinta's body comes with an intense Israeli operation underway in Gaza, with the Civil Defense reporting at least 38 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Friday. The IDF said four soldiers were killed and five wounded early Friday morning when an explosive was detonated in a building in Khan Younis in which they were operating, causing part of the structure to collapse. A total of 55 hostages remain in Gaza, including one taken in 2014. Twenty are believed to still be alive. Of the 251 people taken hostage by Hamas militants on October 7, many were migrant workers from poor rural parts of Asia, who had gone to work in Israel's agricultural, construction and health care sectors to send money back home.
