Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to an El Salvadoran prison in March, has been returned to the U.S. to face criminal charges related to the transportation of undocumented immigrants, according to a federal indictment that was unsealed on Friday.
Abrego Garcia, who entered the U.S. illegally years ago, was deported in March despite a 2019 federal court order that protected him from removal to El Salvador. His case sparked national outrage and warnings from some legal scholars that it put the U.S. at risk of a constitutional crisis, as the Trump Administration opposed multiple court orders, including one from the Supreme Court, to take steps to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S.
Now, Abrego Garcia is back in U.S. custody, but is facing federal criminal charges. The 10-page indictment, filed in Federal District Court in Nashville, alleges that Abrego Garcia belongs to the MS-13 gang and participated in a conspiracy to “transport thousands of undocumented aliens” across the U.S.
The Administration has argued without verification that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13, which it has designated a foreign terrorist organization, since he was deported.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the charges in a press conference, thanking El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele for agreeing to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S.
“This is what American justice looks like,” Bondi said. “Upon completion of his sentence, we anticipate he will be returned to his home country of El Salvador.”
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers told news outlets that his return on Friday made clear that the Trump Administration had the power to bring him back to the U.S., adding that it was now up to the “judicial system to see that Mr. Abrego Garcia receives the due process that the constitution guarantees to all persons.”
“Today’s actions proves what we’ve known all along—that the Administration had the ability to bring him back and just refused to do so,” Andrew Rossman, a lawyer for Abrego Garcia, said in a statement to multiple outlets.
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