Mistakenly deported Salvadoran native Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been introduced again to the US the place he’ll face legal costs for allegedly transporting undocumented migrants inside the U.S.
Greater than two months after the Trump administration admitted it mistakenly deported Abrego Garcia from Maryland to his native El Salvador, a federal grand jury has indicted him for allegedly transporting undocumented migrants inside the US.
A two-count indictment, which was filed beneath seal in federal court docket in Tennessee final month and unsealed Friday, alleges Abrego Garcia, 29, participated in a yearslong conspiracy to haul undocumented migrants from Texas to the inside of the nation.
He was scheduled to have his preliminary court docket look Friday within the Center District of Tennessee.
Abrego Garcia’s return follows a collection of court docket battles wherein the Trump administration repeatedly stated it was unable to deliver him again, drawing the nation towards the brink of a constitutional disaster when the administration didn’t heed the Supreme Court docket’s order to facilitate his return.
Abrego Garcia’s legal professional, in a web-based press briefing, known as the fees towards his shopper “an abuse of energy.”
“They’re going to cease at nothing in any respect — even a number of the most preposterous costs possible simply to keep away from admitting that they made a mistake, which is what everybody is aware of occurred on this case,” stated legal professional Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is positioned within the again seat of a truck by ICE brokers after arriving in Nashville, Tenn., June 6, 2025.
ABC Information
“Mr. Garcia goes to be vigorously defending the fees towards him,” the legal professional stated.
The choice to pursue the indictment towards Abrego Garcia led to the abrupt departure of Ben Schrader, a high-ranking federal prosecutor in Tennessee, sources briefed on Schrader’s determination advised ABC Information. Schrader’s resignation was prompted by considerations that the case was being pursued for political causes, the sources stated.
Schrader, who spent 15 years within the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace in Nashville and was most just lately the chief of the legal division, declined to remark when contacted by ABC Information.
The alleged conspiracy spanned almost a decade and concerned the home transport of hundreds of noncitizens from Mexico and Central America, together with some kids, in change for hundreds of {dollars}, based on the indictment.
Abrego-Garcia is alleged to have participated in additional than 100 such journeys, based on the indictment. Amongst these allegedly transported have been members of the Salvadoran gang MS-13, sources aware of the investigation stated.
Abrego-Garcia is the one member of the alleged conspiracy charged within the indictment.
Lawyer Common Pam Bondi speaks as Deputy Lawyer Common Todd Blanche listens throughout a information convention about Kilmar Abrego Garcia on the Justice Division, June 6, 2025, in Washington.
Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
Lawyer Common Pam Bondi, at a Friday afternoon press convention, thanked Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele for “agreeing to return Abrego Garcia to the US.”
“Our authorities introduced El Salvador with an arrest warrant and so they agreed to return him to our nation,” Bondi stated.
Bondi stated that if Abrego Garcia is convicted of the fees, upon the completion of his sentence he shall be deported again to his dwelling nation of El Salvador.
“The grand jury discovered that over the previous 9 years, Abrego Garcia has performed a big position in an alien smuggling ring,” Bondi stated. “They discovered this was his full time job, not a contractor. He was a smuggler of people and youngsters and girls. He remodeled 100 journeys, the grand jury discovered, smuggling individuals all through our nation.”
In an announcement to ABC Information, Abrego Garcia’s legal professional stated that he’ll preserve combating to make sure Abrego Garcia receives a good trial.
“From the start, this case has made one factor painfully clear: The federal government had the facility to deliver him again at any time. As an alternative, they selected to play video games with the court docket and with a person’s life,” Sandoval-Moshenberg stated. “We’re not simply combating for Kilmar — we’re combating to make sure due course of rights are protected for everybody. As a result of tomorrow, this might be any certainly one of us — if we let energy go unchecked, if we ignore our Structure.”
In a detention memo filed Friday afternoon in court docket in Tennessee, federal prosecutors moved to have Abrego Garcia held in pretrial custody “as a result of he poses a hazard to the neighborhood and a severe threat of flight, and no situation or mixture of circumstances would guarantee the protection of the neighborhood or his look in court docket.”
Federal prosecutors, in a detention memo filed this afternoon in court docket in Tennessee, have moved for pre-trial detention of Abrego Garcia, writing that “…the US will request that the defendant be held in pretrial custody as a result of he poses a hazard to the neighborhood and a severe threat of flight, and no situation or mixture of circumstances would guarantee the protection of the neighborhood or his look in court docket.”
“If convicted at trial, the defendant faces a most punishment of 10 years’ imprisonment for ‘every alien’ he transported,” the memo stated, “Accordingly, the sentencing publicity for the defendant — given the variety of undocumented aliens concerned — goes effectively past the rest of the defendant’s life.”
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who had been dwelling along with his spouse and youngsters in Maryland, was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — regardless of a 2019 court docket order barring his deportation to that nation on account of worry of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the legal gang MS-13. His spouse and attorneys deny that he’s an MS-13 member.
The Justice Division’s transfer to criminally prosecute Abrego Garcia represents essentially the most aggressive step but within the administration’s efforts to collect doubtlessly incriminating details about Abrego Garcia’s background, following a federal choose’s order requiring the federal government to facilitate his return to the U.S. to be afforded due course of in deportation proceedings.
The Trump administration has acknowledged in court docket filings that Abrego Garcia’s removing to El Salvador in March was in error, as a result of it violated a U.S. immigration court docket order in 2019 that shielded Abrego Garcia from deportation to his native nation, based on immigration court docket information. An immigration choose had decided that Abrego Garcia would probably face persecution there by native gangs that had allegedly terrorized him and his household.
The administration argued, nonetheless, that Abrego Garcia shouldn’t be returned to the U.S. as a result of he’s a member of the transnational Salvadoran gang MS-13, a declare his household and attorneys have denied. In current weeks, Trump administration officers have been publicizing Abrego Garcia’s interactions with police over time, regardless of a scarcity of corresponding legal costs.
In March, Abrego Garcia’s household filed a lawsuit over his deportation. U.S. District Choose Paula Xinis in Maryland in the end ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return to the U.S. The U.S. Supreme Court docket affirmed that ruling on April 10.
Abrego Garcia was initially despatched to El Salvador’s infamous CECOT jail however was believed to have later been transferred to a distinct facility within the nation.
The legal investigation that led to the fees was launched in April as federal authorities started scrutinizing the circumstances of a 2022 visitors cease of Abrego Garcia by the Tennessee Freeway Patrol, based on the sources. Abrego Garcia was pulled over for dashing in a car with eight passengers and advised police that they had been working development in Missouri.
In keeping with physique digital camera footage of the 2022 visitors cease, the Tennessee troopers — after questioning Abrego Garcia — mentioned amongst themselves their suspicions that Abrego Garcia may be transporting individuals for cash as a result of 9 individuals have been touring with out baggage, however Abrego Garcia was not ticketed or charged.
Undated picture offered by Murray Osorio PLLC reveals Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Murray Osorio PLLC through AP
The officers in the end allowed Abrego Garcia to drive on with only a warning about an expired driver’s license, based on a report in regards to the cease launched final month by the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety.
Requested what circumstances have modified since Abrego Garcia was not taken in custody throughout that visitors cease in Tennessee, Bondi replied, “What has modified is Donald Trump is now president of the US, and our borders are once more safe, and due to the intense mild that has been shined on Abrego Garcia — this investigation continued with truly wonderful police work, and we have been in a position to observe this case and cease this worldwide smuggling ring from persevering with.”
Requested by ABC Information’ Pierre Thomas requested whether or not this needs to be seen as resolving the separate civil case in Maryland wherein a federal choose ordered the federal government to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, Deputy Lawyer Common Todd Blanche stated, “There is a large distinction between what the state of play was earlier than the indictment and after the indictment. And so the explanation why he’s again and was returned was as a result of an arrest warrant which was introduced to the federal government and in El Salvador. So there’s, there is a large distinction there so far as whether or not it makes the continued litigation in Maryland moot. I might suppose so, however we do not find out about this. He simply landed in the present day.”
As ABC Information first reported final month, the Justice Division had been quietly investigating the Tenessee visitors cease. As a part of the probe, federal brokers in late April visited a federal jail in Talladega, Alabama to query Jose Ramon Hernandez-Reyes, a convicted felon who was the registered proprietor of the car Abrego Garcia was driving when stopped on Interstate 40 east of Nashville, sources beforehand advised ABC Information. Hernandez-Reyes was not current on the visitors cease.
Hernandez-Reyes, 38, is at present serving a 30-month sentence for illegally re-entering the U.S. after a previous felony conviction for unlawful transportation of aliens.
After being granted restricted immunity, Hernandez-Reyes allegedly advised investigators that he beforehand operated a “taxi service” based mostly in Baltimore. He claimed to have met Abrego Garcia round 2015 and claimed to have employed him on a number of events to move undocumented migrants from Texas to numerous areas in the US, sources advised ABC Information.
When particulars of the Tennessee visitors cease have been first publicized, Abrego Garcia’s spouse stated her husband generally transported teams of fellow development staff between job websites.
“Sadly, Kilmar is at present imprisoned with out contact with the skin world, which suggests he can’t reply to the claims,” Jennifer Vasquez Sura stated in mid-April.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who flew to El Salvador and met with Abrego Garcia shortly after his deportation, stated Friday that the Trump administration had “relented” relating to his return.
“After months of ignoring our Structure, it appears the Trump Admin has relented to our calls for for compliance with court docket orders and due course of for Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” Van Hollen posted on X. “This has by no means been in regards to the man — it is about his constitutional rights & the rights of all.”
Abrego Garcia entered the U.S. illegally as a youngster in 2012, based on court docket information. He had been dwelling in Maryland for the previous 13 years, and married Vasquez Sura, a U.S. citizen, in 2019. The couple has one little one collectively.
ABC Information’ Laura Romero contributed to this report.
