Latest news with #KilmarArmandoAbregoGarcia
New York Times
16-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Abrego Garcia Lawyers Question Evidence From Key Witness in Criminal Case
Lawyers for Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the immigrant who was wrongfully expelled to El Salvador in March, poked holes on Wednesday in some of the evidence supporting the charges that were used to bring him back to face trial in the United States. The efforts by the lawyers were largely focused on chipping away at the accounts of a group of witnesses who have come forward in recent weeks to accuse Mr. Abrego Garcia of having taken part in a nearly decadelong conspiracy to smuggle illegal immigrants as a member of the violent street gang MS-13. Appearing in court Wednesday, the lawyers also questioned the federal agent who led the inquiry into Mr. Abrego Garcia, getting him to acknowledge on the stand that while he had personally spoken with the government's star witness in the case, he had never looked at three previous — and less incriminating — interviews conducted by other investigators. All of this took place at a hearing in Federal District Court in Nashville intended to determine whether Mr. Abrego Garcia should be freed from criminal custody as he awaits trial. While a federal magistrate judge has already determined that he should go free, finding that he was neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community, the district judge overseeing the case, Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., was asked by the government to revisit that decision. Judge Crenshaw said he planned to make his own decision next week; how he rules will greatly affect Mr. Abrego Garcia's future. In a remarkable admission, the Justice Department said last week that it intends to push forward with prosecuting Mr. Abrego Garcia only if the judge keeps him locked up as he awaits trial. If Mr. Abrego Garcia is released, department lawyers have suggested that the charges will likely be dropped and he will be turned over to immigration officials for immediate deportation. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
11-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Judge Signals She Will Protect Abrego Garcia From Hasty Second Deportation
A frustrated federal judge signaled on Friday that she would issue an order protecting Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the immigrant who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador, from being hastily expelled from the United States again after he was brought back last month to face criminal charges. The suggestion by Judge Paula Xinis, who is handling the original civil case emerging from the wrongful deportation, came during a hearing in Federal District Court in Maryland where she exploded at the Justice Department for having badly damaged the bonds of trust that are normally afforded by the courts to lawyers for the government. 'This has been the process from Day 1,' said Judge Xinis, who in the past several months has chided the administration over and over for how it has handled Mr. Abrego Garcia's case. 'You have taken the presumption of regularity and you've destroyed it in my view.' Expressing their own frustrations, Mr. Abrego Garcia's lawyers have asked Judge Xinis at a series of hearings this week to give them the chance to challenge any efforts by the Trump administration to re-deport their client if he is released from custody in his criminal case and handed over to immigration officials. The lawyers want Judge Xinis to bar the administration from beginning removal proceedings for two or three business days if Mr. Abrego Garcia is freed from criminal custody, which could happen as early as Wednesday, when there is a separate hearing in his criminal case in Nashville. While the Justice Department initially vowed to take Mr. Abrego Garcia to trial on charges of immigrant smuggling filed against him in Nashville, department lawyers have more recently indicated that the Department of Homeland Security would seek to re-deport him before a trial took place — perhaps to a third country where he has never lived. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Spectator
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
Has deporting illegals become illegal?
The circus around Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia – whose full name the New York Times likes to trot out as if citing an old-school English aristocrat – speaks volumes about the immigration battle roiling the US. Our friend Kilmar is what we fuddy-duddies insist on calling an illegal immigrant. The Salvadoran crossed clandestinely into the US in 2012. As for what he's done since, that depends on whom you ask. According to his GoFundMe page, Kilmar is a 'husband, union worker and father of a disabled five-year-old'. Left-wing media portray 'the Maryland man' – a tag akin to Axel Rudakubana's 'a Welshman' – as an industrious metalworker devoted to his family. His wife has rowed back on the temporary protective order she once requested, claiming she'd been over-cautious. Yet according to the Trump administration, Kilmar is a member of the notoriously violent street gang MS-13 who's derived his primary source of income from smuggling hundreds of illegals over the southern border for several years. Choose A or B. In 2019, Kilmar was arrested for loitering along with three other men, one a suspected MS-13 member. He was carrying marijuana, for which (of course) he wasn't charged. From his clothing, tattoos and, more persuasively, a 'past proven and reliable' confidential source who verified he was an active gang member using the moniker 'Chele', police adjudged that Kilmar was a gangbanger, for which (of course) he wasn't charged. He was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement – whose acronym, ICE, reinforces its rep as cold-hearted – which moved to deport him. Kilmar (of course) contested his removal. The immigration judge hearing Kilmar's case concurred that the defendant was indeed a gang member and deportable; the Salvadoran (of course) appealed the decision, which nevertheless was upheld. Kilmar (of course) then filed for asylum, as well as for a 'withholding of removal'. A subsequent immigration judge stayed his deportation to his home country, where his wellbeing might be endangered by local gangs. Now, you might suppose that putting yourself in the way of other famously rivalrous gangs would come with the territory when you join one yourself. Like, inter-gang violence seems a natural hazard of this line of work. But it's not only British immigration judges who are soft touches. Only mass round-ups and swift group trials could effectively address the millions of gate-crashers Kilmar (of course) remained in the US. In 2022, he was pulled over for speeding while driving eight other Hispanic men of uncertain immigration status in an SUV altered to add a third row of seats for extra passengers. The officers suspected human-trafficking; Kilmar's driving licence had expired; a run of his number plate through the database turned up a federal note on likely membership of MS-13. Yet when the patrolmen contacted the feds, ICE (of course) declined to pick him up. So Kilmar was (of course) released without charge. Even so, his claim that he was merely transporting construction workers between jobs did not, under investigation, hold up. Fast-forward to 2025 and why this otherwise obscure Salvadoran who is or is not a thug merits such a detailed lowdown. Meaning (of course) that this case has to do with Donald Trump – whose evil minions in March flew more than 230 purported criminals to a Salvadoran prison, including none other than Kilmar, whom ICE did finally pick up (no 'of course' there). The flights' timing was judicially dodgy. The planes did or didn't take off after a federal judge ruled that the flights could not proceed until the deportees were given the opportunity to challenge their removal. The administration appealed to the Supreme Court, which directed Trump to 'facilitate' Kilmar's return to the US. Because, remember, there was only one country to which he could not be deported because of that credulous 2019 decision: his own. Hence the Justice Department's acceptance that Kilmar's deportation was an 'administrative error'. During this proxy war with Trump, Democrats have pretended to hair-tear over poor Kilmar, mouldering away in a nasty foreign prison and deprived of due process. But the story I just laid out has due process, not to mention leniency or even dereliction on the part of the authorities, up the wazoo. Meanwhile, after slyly getting their jurisprudential ducks in a row, last week Trump and co finally got Kilmar flown back to the US, only to arrest him immediately for human-trafficking – with every intention of convicting the guy and then deporting him right back to El Salvador. What do we make of this farce? The American commentariat has focused on a potential showdown between Trump and the judiciary, claiming to fear a flat-out executive refusal to follow court orders but secretly rather hoping that Trump does defy the courts and thus reveals himself as an unconstitutional tyrant. I view this absurd tale through a different lens. All these trials and flights for a lone illegal alien are expensive. The amount of 'due process' the American justice system affords every single illegal makes deportation at any scale impossible. There isn't enough time and money and there aren't nearly enough judges to make any but a token gesture toward the mass deportation of illegals that Trump has promised. That amounts to a victory not just for Democrats but also for disorder. I'd assess the odds that Kilmar is a thug at about 90 per cent. But proving membership of unofficial allegiances in court is a bastard. If every individual deportation case must be adjudicated according to exacting evidentiary rules and appeal procedures, America's drastic, undemocratic demographic change will proceed inexorably. Only mass round-ups and swift group trials could effectively address the staggering ten million gate-crashers during the Biden administration alone. What are the chances of that? In New York at the weekend, ICE raids were impeded by LA-style crowds of righteously indignant protestors screaming: 'Let them go! Let them go!' The officers just doing their jobs looked beleaguered, tired, numb and pre-defeated. After all the ICE agents' thankless labours, what proportion of their detainees will still get to stay in the country in the end? I'll take another stab at 90 per cent.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, wrongly deported to El Salvador prison, to face federal charges in Nashville
Protesters outside the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in Greenbelt rally on April 4, 2025, in support of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father who was deported to El Salvador in an 'administrative error,' calling for him to be returned to the U.S. (Photo by Ariana Figueroa/States Newsroom) Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man the Trump Administration conceded had been wrongly deported to a notorious El Salvador prison, has been returned to the United States and is scheduled to be arraigned in a Nashville federal court on Friday. A two-count Tennessee grand jury indictment, issued May 21 and unsealed Friday, alleges Abrego Garcia and unnamed co-conspirators were members of the MS-13 gang and 'knowingly and unlawfully transported thousands of undocumented aliens' for profit between 2016 and 2025. The indictment, filed in the Middle District of Tennessee, accuses Abrego Garcia 'of conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal aliens for financial gain' and 'unlawful transportation of illegal aliens for financial gain.' The indictment does not name nor charge any alleged co-conspirators. In a separate motion filed Friday, prosecutors seek to keep Garcia in detention, alleging he is a flight risk and a danger to the community. Wrongly deported Maryland man Abrego Garcia returned to U.S. Chris Newman, an attorney representing the Abrego Garcia family said at a virtual press event Friday that he remained skeptical of the federal charges lodged at Abrego Garcia. 'I can tell you that we should all treat whatever charges that are being leveled against him with a high degree of suspicion,' Newman said. 'We should make sure that he gets a fair (trial) in court because he's clearly not getting a fair hearing in the court of public opinion,' he said. Abrego Garcia's deportation served as a flashpoint for the Trump Administration's mass deportations of immigrants without a hearing or ordinary due process rights that give immigrants —– and all U.S. residents —– the right to defend themselves against charges of illegal activities. In April, the Supreme Court ruled the Trump Administration had to 'facilitate' Abrego Garcia's return to the United States. For the next two months, administration officials said Abrego Garcia's return was out of their hands and up to the government of El Salvador. On Friday, in a nationally televised news conference, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi thanked Nayib Bukele, that nation's president, for agreeing to Abrego Garcia's release. The criminal charges filed in Nashville are tied to a November 2022 traffic stop by the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Abrego Garcia was driving an SUV with nine Hispanic men when he was pulled over for speeding on Interstate 40 in Putnam County about 80 miles east of Nashville, court records said. He was not charged in the incident. Prosecutors now allege that further investigation revealed the stop involved Abrego Garcia smuggling migrants within the United States illegally. Rob McGuire, who has served as acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee since last year, and lawyers for the Joint Task Force Vulcan —– a unit established specifically to investigate MS-13 gang members —– are listed in court records as prosecutors in the case. ABC News, citing unnamed sources, reported late Friday that the decision to pursue an indictment against Abrego Garcia led to the abrupt resignation of Ben Schrader, former chief of the criminal division for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's office on Friday referred requests for information about the date and circumstances of Schrader's departure, including a copy of any letter of resignation, to a human resources officer, who did not immediately respond on Friday. Schrader, in a LinkedIn post two weeks ago, announced his resignation from the job he held for 15 years. Schrader wrote 'the only job description I've ever known is to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons.' Schrader did not give a reason for his resignation in his public post and did not respond Friday to a an email sent to his address at Vanderbilt University, where he is listed as holding a teaching post. Kilmar Abrego Garcia indictment
NZ Herald
07-06-2025
- Politics
- NZ Herald
Salvadoran migrant returned to US, charged with human smuggling
The Salvadoran migrant at the heart of a row over US President Donald Trump's hardline deportation policies was returned to the United States on Saturday and arrested on human smuggling charges. Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was brought back to the US from El Salvador and charged with trafficking undocumented migrants,
