Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, is on his way back to the United States after being mistakenly deported by the Trump administration, where he is set to face criminal charges related to the alleged transport of undocumented migrants within the country.
More than two months after his deportation from Maryland to El Salvador, a federal grand jury has issued a two-count indictment against Abrego Garcia, who is now 29 years old.
The indictment, filed under seal in federal court in Tennessee, claims that Abrego Garcia was part of a conspiracy that lasted nearly a decade, facilitating the transport of thousands of undocumented migrants, including children, from Mexico and Central America across the United States.
Sources close to the investigation reveal that among those allegedly transported by Abrego Garcia were individuals linked to the Salvadoran gang MS-13.
Abrego Garcia’s attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, stated that he will continue to advocate for his client to ensure he receives a fair trial.
“From the beginning, this case has made one thing painfully clear: The government had the power to bring him back at any time. Instead, they chose to play games with the court and with a man’s life,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said in a statement to ABC News.
He emphasized the broader implications of the case, arguing that it serves as a fight for due process rights essential for all individuals.
The deportation of Abrego Garcia occurred in March when he was sent to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT mega-prison, despite a previously issued 2019 court order protecting him from such action due to fears of persecution.
The Trump administration had claimed that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13, a point fervently denied by both his family and legal representation.
This recent push by the Justice Department to prosecute Abrego Garcia marks a significant effort to substantiate claims against him, especially following a judge’s order mandating that he be returned to the U.S. for due process in his deportation proceedings.
High-level diplomatic discussions between the Trump administration and Salvadoran officials have facilitated Abrego Garcia’s impending return.
Court filings reveal that the administration confessed in court that his March deportation was erroneous, violating the aforementioned U.S. immigration court order. An immigration judge had decided that returning him to El Salvador posed a significant risk to his safety due to gang-related threats he and his family had faced.
Despite acknowledging this mistake, the administration maintained that Abrego Garcia should not be allowed back in the U.S., arguing his purported connection to MS-13.
In the weeks prior to this latest development, Trump administration officials had begun publicizing Abrego Garcia’s past interactions with law enforcement despite the absence of any formal charges.
The saga escalated when Abrego Garcia’s family filed a lawsuit challenging his deportation, with U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland ultimately ordering the Trump administration to facilitate his return.
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld this ruling on April 10, further validating the judicial process in this case.
After being deported to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was reportedly transferred from CECOT prison to another facility within the country.
The criminal investigation that led to the current charges was initiated last April when federal authorities revisited an incident involving a traffic stop of Abrego Garcia by the Tennessee Highway Patrol in 2022.
At the time of the stop, Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with eight passengers and had informed police that they had been working construction in Missouri.
Body camera footage from the traffic stop shows Tennessee troopers suspecting that Abrego Garcia might be involved in human smuggling due to the number of passengers traveling without luggage, although he was ultimately not ticketed or charged and was allowed to drive away after receiving a warning about his expired driver’s license.
In light of this incident, the Justice Department began quietly investigating, and in late April, federal agents visited a federal prison in Talladega, Alabama, where they questioned Jose Ramon Hernandez-Reyes, a convicted felon linked to the vehicle Abrego Garcia was driving during the traffic stop.
Hernandez-Reyes, who is serving a 30-month sentence for illegally re-entering the U.S. after a prior felony conviction, allegedly claimed to investigators that he had previously employed Abrego Garcia to transport undocumented migrants from Texas.
Amid the controversy surrounding the allegations, Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, asserted that her husband occasionally transported fellow construction workers between job sites, rather than undocumented migrants.
“It is unfortunate that Kilmar is currently imprisoned without contact with the outside world, which means he cannot respond to the claims,” she expressed in mid-April.
Abrego Garcia entered the U.S. illegally as a teenager in 2012 and has lived in Maryland for the past 13 years, marrying Vasquez Sura, a U.S. citizen, in 2019. The couple has a child together.
As the situation unfolds, the implications for Abrego Garcia’s case could resonate far beyond his individual circumstances, as it raises significant questions regarding due process and the treatment of individuals within the U.S. immigration system.
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