Latest news with #wrongfulDeportation
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Yahoo
Kilmar Abrego Garcia enters not guilty pleas while federal judge defers decision on his release
Supporters of Kilmar Abrego Garcia protest outside the Fred D. Thompson Federal Courthouse in Nashville on June 13 before Abrego Garcia's arraignment on federal charges. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout) NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose wrongful deportation to an El Salvador prison sparked national debate over Trump administration immigration crackdowns, entered not guilty pleas on Friday to two federal human smuggling charges. Dressed in an orange jumpsuit and seated next to attorneys with the federal public defender's office, Abrego Garcia spoke only once, through a translator. 'I understand,' he said in response to the judge's reading of the charges. The charges against Abrego Garcia, 29, are 'conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal aliens for financial gain' and 'unlawful transportation of illegal aliens for financial gain.' Friday's hearing, in a downtown Nashville federal courtroom, turned primarily on the question of whether Abrego Garcia may be denied the opportunity to be released from jail pending trial. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes said she would take the matter under advisement. She said she will issue a written ruling on the prosecution's motion to keep Abrego Garcia detained 'sooner rather than later.' Advocacy organizations warn 'we are all Kilmar'; pledge to fight for immigrant rights The criminal charges stem from a federal investigation opened into a 2022 Tennessee traffic stop. Abrego Garcia was pulled over for speeding with nine Hispanic men in the back of a Chevrolet Suburban. Abrego Garcia was not arrested or charged in the incident. But a recent Department of Homeland Security investigation opened into the three-year-old stop gave rise to the charges he now faces, testimony in court Friday revealed. The investigation relied on cooperating witnesses, analysis of license plate readers to track Abrego Garcia's movements and a review of the Tennessee traffic stop evidence. Acting U.S. Attorney Rob McGuire alleged that Abrego Garcia was a danger to the community and a member of the MS-13 gang who, for nine years, engaged in an illegal smuggling operation that included transporting children, gang members and guns. Abrego Garcia has not been charged with gun crimes or crimes involving child victims. Attorneys for Abrego Garcia said the government's case should be looked at through a 'lens of suspicion and skepticism' and questioned why it took three years to bring. Federal prosecutors in Nashville ask judge to keep Abrego Garcia detained until trial 'The United States government from D.C. to Tennessee has exaggerated' allegations against Abrego Garcia, said Dumaka Shabazz, one of Abrego Garcia's public defenders. 'This is a house of cards built on the unverified credibility of unreliable corroborators,' he said. 'The only reason they're calling him dangerous now is to justify denying him due process and subjecting him to cruel and inhuman punishment they have to cover up,' said Shabazz, referencing Abrego Garcia's imprisonment for nearly three months in a notorious Salvadoran prison. McGuire countered that the charges against Abrego Garcia arose from following the facts. 'Since I've learned about this case, all I've tried to do is the right thing,' he said. 'The facts are I didn't … whip up witnesses and tell them to commit perjury.' 'I understand there are strong feelings about this case on both sides,' he said. The day-long hearing focused on the government's arguments to detain Abrego Garcia until trial. Evidence that minors were present, and potentially placed at risk during Abrego Garcia's alleged illegal acts could trigger legal justification for detaining Abrego Garcia and prosecutors presented allegations involving the safety of minors. Abrego Garcia has not been charged with crimes related to minor victims. Kilmar Abrego Garcia's wife shares message ahead of hearing: 'Continue fighting … God is with us' But prosecutors said a Department of Homeland Security investigation into the circumstances behind the 2022 traffic stop uncovered evidence that Abrego Garcia transported minor children, including his own, in part to provide cover for his allegedly illegal activities. Abrego Garcia, McGuire alleged, acted as the driver in a human smuggling operation that involved transporting migrants already in the country illegally to different points around the nation over a nine-year period. McGuire cited a witness who said that Abrego Garcia engaged in sexual, but not physical, exchanges with her several years ago when she was a teen and referenced a list of passengers the Tennessee Highway Patrol obtained during the 2022 traffic stop. One of the passengers listed his age as 15. 'Migrant transportation is inherently dangerous,' McGuire said. 'The defendant transported his own children in an unsafe manner.' McGuire argued that Abrego Garcia is a flight risk, and that his newfound notoriety could give him access to resources provided by those opposed to Trump administration immigration policies. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes, who presided over the case, called the flight risk argument largely 'academic.' Kilmar Abrego Garcia arraignment in Nashville Immigration officials have already placed a hold on Abrego Garcia, giving them the authority to take immediate custody should he be released from jail, she noted. The sole witness at Friday's hearing was Peter Joseph, a Department of Homeland Security special agent who said he was first assigned to investigate Abrego Garcia on April 28, three years after the Tennessee traffic stop. By then, Abrego Garcia was incarcerated inside the Center for Terrorism Confinement prison in El Salvador. The Supreme Court had, on April 10, ordered the federal government to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return to the United States. Joseph testified that he had reviewed License Plate Reader software in multiple states that contradicted Abrego Garcia's statements about his movements to troopers at the time of the Tennessee traffic stop. He also testified that five confidential witnesses, including co-conspirators in the alleged years-long human smuggling operation, had implicated Abrego Garcia in the scheme. Richard Tennant, another of Abrego Garcia's defense attorneys, noted that some of the cooperating witnesses have their own liberty at stake. Three of the witnesses entered cooperation deals that could aid their ongoing criminal and immigration cases. Four of the five witnesses are from the same family, testimony revealed. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Washington Post
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Appeals court allows order to return deported Venezuelan man to go forward
A federal appeals court will allow a U.S. district judge's order for the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a wrongfully deported Venezuelan man from El Salvador to move forward, part of the mounting pressure from the court system to get the executive branch to follow due process in its immigration enforcement efforts.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Senator says trip to El Salvador was to support Kilmar Ábrego García's due process
Senator Chris Van Hollen, who travelled to El Salvador last week to meet Kilmar Ábrego García, the man at the center of a wrongful deportation dispute, said on Sunday that his trip was to support Ábrego García's right to due process because if that was denied then everyone's constitutional rights were threatened in the US. The White House has claimed Ábrego García is a member of the MS-13 gang though he has not been charged with any gang-related crimes and the supreme court has ordered his return to the US be facilitated. But in an interview with ABC's This Week, Van Hollen, a Maryland senator, stressed that the government had presented no evidence linking Ábrego García to MS-13 in federal court. 'Mr President,' the senator said, 'take your facts to court, don't put everything out on social media.' Related: Kilmar Ábrego García 'traumatized' by threats in prison, Maryland senator says Speaking on CNN's State of the Union, Van Hollen contested Trump's 'argument that you can't fight gang violence and uphold people's constitutional rights at the same time. That's a very dangerous view. If we deny the constitutional rights of this one man, it threatens the constitutional rights of everyone in America.' Van Hollen, who returned to the US on Friday after meeting with Ábrego García, has accused administration officials of lying about Ábrego García's case in an attempt to distract from questions about whether his rights were violated when he was deported to El Salvador last month. 'I'm for whatever gives him his due process rights,' Van Hollen told the outlet. 'An immigration judge in 2019 said he should not be deported to El Salvador because that would put his life at risk from gang members like MS-13. 'The Trump administration did not appeal that immigration judge's order to keep him in the United States. He is here legally now, has a work permit, is a sheet metal worker, has a family, and three kids,' he said. 'I am fine with whatever result happens as long as he is given his due process rights under the constitution,' Van Hollen added. The administration has said Ábrego García's deportation was an 'administrative error' and the supreme court has ordered that the government 'facilitate' his return, setting up a contentious debate of what that means in practical terms. As Van Hollen made the rounds of political shows on Sunday, he expanded on the theme of a constitutional crisis. On NBC's Meet the Press he was asked if the US was in constitutional crisis with the Trump administration. 'Oh, yes, we are. They are very much flouting the courts as we speak. As the courts have said, facilitating his return means something more than doing nothing, and they are doing nothing. Yes, they're absolutely in violation of the court's orders as we speak,' he said. 'My whole point here is that if you deprive one man of his constitutional rights, you threaten the constitutional rights of everybody,' Van Hollen said later to the Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream. 'I would hope that all of us would understand that principle – you're a lawyer. I'm not vouching for the individual, I'm vouching for his rights.' On ABC's This Week, Van Hollen was asked if he had walked into a trap when García was brought to his hotel for an hour-long meeting and the pair were pictured with margaritas. The senator said the drinks were placed there by a government official for the photos, and not touched, and added that the trip wasn't a trap because his purpose had been to meet with García so he could 'tell his wife and family he was OK'. 'That was my goal. And I achieved that goal,' he said. But he added that 'the Salvadorian authorities tried to deceive people. They tried to make it look like he was in paradise. They actually wanted to have the meeting by the hotel pool originally.' The senator also accused Tom Homan, Trump's 'border czar', of 'lying through his teeth' about Ábrego García, and strongly rejected comments by Gavin Newsom, the California governor seen as a potential candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028, who said that it was politically dangerous for Democrats to defend the wrongly deported man. 'I think what Americans are tired of, is people who want to put their finger to the wind to see what's going on,' the senator said. 'I would say that anyone that's not prepared to defend the constitutional rights of one man, when they threaten the constitutional rights of all, doesn't deserve to lead.' After the meeting, President Nayib Bukele posted the image on X, writing that García 'miraculously risen from the 'death camps' & 'torture', now sipping margaritas with Senator Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!' Van Hollen said the venue for the meeting and the subsequent picture 'just goes to show the lengths that Bukele and Trump will go to try to deceive people about what this case is all about'. On Friday, the White House mocked Van Hollen by annotating a headline about his Thursday meeting with García. 'Fixed it for you, New York Times,' the White House X account shared. 'Oh, and by the way, Chris Van Hollen – he's NOT coming back.' The annotated headline changes 'Senator Meets With Wrongly Deported Maryland Man in El Salvador' included crossing out 'Wrongly' in red ink and replacing the words 'Maryland Man' with 'MS-13 Illegal Alien'. They also added 'Who's Never Coming Back.' Related: US supreme court orders temporary halt to deportations of Venezuelan men But Ábrego García's deportation was also facing opposition from Republicans. On Sunday, the Louisiana senator John Kennedy was asked on Meet The Press if Ábrego García should be returned to the US. Kennedy said that Van Hollen's trip to El Salvador and calls for Ábrego García to be returned to the US were 'utterly and gloriously wrong' and said that 'most of this gauzy rhetoric is just rage bait. Unless you're next-level obtuse, you know that Mr García is never coming back to the United States, ever.' But Kennedy conceded that Ábrego García's deportation 'was a screw-up', adding that 'the administration won't admit it, but this was a screw-up. Mr García was not supposed to be sent to El Salvador. He was sent to El Salvador.' But he said Democrats' response was typical. 'The Democrats say, 'Look, you know, we told you, Trump is a threat to democracy.' This is going to happen every other Thursday afternoon. I don't see any pattern here. I mean, you know, some day pigs may fly, but I doubt it,'' he added.
