WASHINGTON – Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, was returned to the United States Friday to face criminal charges.
Abrego Garcia is facing charges for alien smuggling and conspiracy to commit alien smuggling, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters that Abrego Garcia had landed in the U.S. on Friday.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia charged in Tennessee federal court
What we know:
FOX 5 DC has obtained court documents indicting Abrego Garcia for two counts related to the “unlawful transportation of illegal aliens for financial gain.”
“The grand jury found that over the past nine years Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring. They found this was his full-time job, not a contractor. He was a smuggler of humans and children and women. He made over 100 trips,” said Bondi.
Bondi accused Abrego Garcia of smuggling MS-13 team members throughout the U.S. as well as transporting children, firearms and narcotics.
“The defendant traded the innocence of minor children for profit,” said Bondi.
The charges in Tennessee were first filed in federal court on May 21. The case was under seal until Friday afternoon.
What we don’t know:
What’s unclear is if Abrego Garcia’s return to face criminal charges satisfies Judge Paula Xinis’ order to return Abrego Garcia to the United States.
“The reason why he is back and was returned was because there’s an arrest warrant which was presented to the government in El Salvador,” said Blance. “So there’s a big difference there. As far as whether it makes the ongoing litigation in Maryland moot, I would think so but we don’t know that.”
What they’re saying:
Senator Glenn Ivey spoke to FOX 5 DC, saying he’s read the indictment, which he describes as “relatively short and not very specific.”
“I’m glad he’s going to have a chance to talk to his lawyers, because the entire time he’s been in El Salvador he’s been incommunicado,” said Ivey. “Hopefully they’ll be able to give him a chance to have conversations about what happened with this case so they can prepare to put on a defense because he is facing federal charges now, and he deserves full constitutional rights.”
“The government disappeared Kilmar to a foreign prison in violation of a court order. Now, after months of delay and secrecy, they’re bringing him back, not to correct their error but to prosecute him. Due process means the chance to defend yourself before you’re punished, not after. This is an abuse of power, not justice,” said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, attorney for Abrego Garcia, in a written statement to FOX 5 DC. “The government should give him a full and fair trial in front of the same immigration judge who heard the case in 2019.”
U.S. Senator Van Hollen released the following statement:
“For months the Trump Administration flouted the Supreme Court and our Constitution. Today, they appear to have finally relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and with the due process rights afforded to everyone in the United States. As I have repeatedly said, this is not about the man, it’s about his constitutional rights – and the rights of all. The Administration will now have to make its case in the court of law, as it should have all along.”
The backstory:
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a 29-year-old El Salvadorian national. He fled his home country and came to the U.S. when he was 16. He has since lived in Maryland. He has three children and a wife, Jennifer Vasquez.
On March 12, Abrego Garcia was arrested in Baltimore after working a shift as a sheet metal apprentice and picking up his 5-year-old son, who has autism and other disabilities, from his grandmother’s house, according to his lawyers.
He was then sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT which activists say is rife with abuses. Three days later, he was deported.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement say they removed him to a Salvadoran prison over a 2019 accusation that he was in the MS-13 gang.
READ MORE: DOJ says Kilmar Abrego Garcia will “never walk freely in the US”
Abrego Garcia’s ties to MS-13 were never proven and he has repeatedly denied being a gang member. His lawyers argue that the U.S. government “has never produced an iota of evidence” that he is affiliated with MS-13 or any other street gang.
His eventual expulsion to El Salvador violated a U.S. immigration judge’s order in 2019 that shielded him from deportation to his native country. The judge ruled that Abrego Garcia had credible fears of being killed if he returned to El Salvador.
Abrego-Garcia has no criminal record in the U.S. outside of a few traffic violations. He had regularly checked in with immigration authorities.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials later admitted in a court filing that his deportation was due to an “administrative error” but the Trump administration has since maintained that there is nothing they can do to bring him back.
The Source: This story includes information reported by ABC News and previous FOX 5 DC reporting.