WASHINGTON – Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who had been living in the U.S. for over a decade before being deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration in what was called an “administrative error,” has been brought back to the U.S. to face federal charges.
Abrego Garcia touched down back in the U.S. Friday afternoon. He has been held in a Salvadoran prison since his arrest in March.
Abrego Garcia criminal charges
What we know:
U.S. Attorney General Bondi said on Friday that a grand jury returned a sealed indictment on May 21 charging Abrego Garcia with alien smuggling and conspiracy to commit alien smuggling.
“Abrego Garcia has landed in the United States to face justice,” Bondi said in a Friday afternoon press conference.
The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee when, according to the DOJ, Abrego-Garcia was transporting illegal migrants. It’s now alleged that he participated in more than 100 such trips.
During the press conference, Bondi claimed that some of the migrants Abrego Garcia transported were members of the notorious Salvadoran gang MS-13.
“Over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has participated in an alien smuggling ring,” Bondi said. “This is what American justice looks like.”
Bondi also claimed that over the years, Abrego Garcia has trafficked firearms and narcotics, although no charges have been brought in connection to those allegations.
READ MORE: Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to US to face criminal charges, says DOJ
Word for word:
Abrego Garcia has been charged with alien smuggling and conspiracy to commit alien smuggling. Here’s a closer look at the statue as defined by the U.S. Department of Justice:
Alien Smuggling: 1907. Title 8, U.S.C. 1324(a) Offenses
Title 8, U.S.C. § 1324(a) defines several distinct offenses related to aliens. Subsection 1324(a)(1)(i)-(v) prohibits alien smuggling, domestic transportation of unauthorized aliens, concealing or harboring unauthorized aliens, encouraging or inducing unauthorized aliens to enter the United States, and engaging in a conspiracy or aiding and abetting any of the preceding acts. Subsection 1324(a)(2) prohibits bringing or attempting to bring unauthorized aliens to the United States in any manner whatsoever, even at a designated port of entry.
- Conspiracy/Aiding or Abetting — Subsection 1324(a)(1)(A)(v) expressly makes it an offense to engage in a conspiracy to commit or aid or abet the commission of the foregoing offenses.
Arrest of Kilmar Abrego Garcia
The backstory:
At the time of his detainment, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Abrego Garcia had been taken into custody under suspicion of being an MS-13 gang member.
Abrego Garcia was accused of being part of the gang by a source, but after the Supreme Court determined that the Trump administration failed to provide legitimate evidence of his affiliation, they affirmed a lower court ruling that he had been deported illegally and had to be brought back to the U.S.
He had been living in the U.S. legally after an immigration judge ruled in 2019 that he had protective status due to concern that he could be killed if he was returned to his home country of El Salvador.
The Department of Justice later admitted that his deportation was due to an “administrative error,” but for months, the Trump administration maintained that it could not facilitate his return to the U.S.
The president’s spurious assertion was further backed when El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, visited the White House and said that he also didn’t “have the power to return him [Abrego Garcia] to the United States.”
Bondi says his release from El Salvador is the result of “recently found facts,” which were not noted in the initial deportation order.
When asked what has now led to these criminal charges and Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S., Bondi said, “What has changed is that Donald Trump is now President of the United States and our borders are now secure.”
Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia?
Dig deeper:
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a 29-year-old Salvadoran national who fled his home country and came to the U.S. when he was 16. He has since lived in Maryland, where he has three children and a wife, Jennifer Vasquez.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyer say on March 12, he was arrested in Baltimore after working a shift as a sheet metal apprentice and picking up his five-year-old son, who has autism and other disabilities, from his grandmother’s house.
He was then sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. He was deported just three days later, with no opportunity to plead his case. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers, and several other U.S. representative and courts, say this was a violation of his right to due process.
Abrego Garcia has no criminal record in the U.S. outside of a few traffic violations. He had regularly checked in with immigration authorities.
The Source: This report uses information from the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FOX 5’s previous reporting on the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.