The Democrats’ favorite illegal gangster, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, is back in the U.S. to face criminal charges related to a sophisticated human smuggling operation that moved illegal immigrants across the country, according to the Department of Justice.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. on Friday during a news conference. Abrego Garcia was charged for Alien Smuggling and Conspiracy to Commit Alien Smuggling in violation of Title 8, U.S. Code 1324.
“This is what American justice looks like,” Bondi said, announcing Abrego Garcia’s return.
News of his abrupt return to the U.S. comes after Democrats pushed for months for Abrego Garcia’s release from an El Salvador prison. Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, was deported there in March due to an “administrative error,” according to Trump officials.
Abrego Garcia’s charges stem from a grand jury indictment, which alleges Abrego Garcia played a key role in smuggling immigrants into and across the country for money. Officials said that he is expected to be prosecuted in the U.S. and, if convicted, will be returned to his home country of El Salvador at the conclusion of the case.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys called the case “baseless” and “preposterous,” the Associated Press reported.
Federal Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville, Tennessee, ordered Abrego Garcia to be held in custody until at least Friday, when there will be an arraignment and detention hearing.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin joins Fox News Live to discuss Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S.
“His final stop with be El Salvador. He’s an illegal immigrant. He’s an MS-13 gang member. He’s a human trafficker,” McLaughlin said. “…This is what the Department of Homeland Security has been saying for months as the media has tried to paint Kilmar Abrego Garcia as this innocent ‘Maryland father.’ The indictment, if you read it, is quite stunning. It’s even worse, possibly, than we thought. He was trafficking women and children, smuggling MS-13 gang members into our country.”
According to the indictment, filed last month and unsealed Friday, investigators have tied Abrego Garcia to a string of allegations that date back to 2016 but are only being disclosed now.
Bondi discussed details of the indictment, which accuses Abrego Garcia of being involved in smuggling thousands of illegal immigrants throughout the U.S. These allegations include children and members of the violent MS-13 gang, from Central America, and abusing women he transported.
He is also accused of soliciting child pornography, McLaughlin said.
“He’s a disgusting human being and he should face justice,” McLaughlin said on Fox News Live. “And I’m proud of the ICE enforcement officers who initially arrested him and I look forward to this Salvadoran man facing justice.”
A co-conspirator also alleged that he participated in the killing of a gang member’s mother in El Salvador, prosecutors wrote, urging the judge to keep him behind bars while he awaits trial. The indictment does not charge him in connection with that allegation.
Although two previous judges had determined he was a member of MS-13 and could be deported, Abrego Garcia’s immigration court order barred his deportation to his native country over fears of gang retribution.
“While partially true — the defendant, according to the information received by the Government, was in fear of retaliation by the 18th Street gang — the underlying reason for the retaliation was the defendant’s own actions in participating in the murder of a rival 18th Street gang member’s mother,” prosecutors wrote.
Sympathetic news outlets have continuously described him as “a wrongly deported Maryland father.” Several lawmakers — including Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, where Abrego Garcia had lived for years — even traveled to El Salvador to visit him.
It’s the latest development in an ongoing political saga raging over the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts, along with a standoff between Trump officials and the courts over “due process” for illegal immigrants.
A federal judge had ordered Abrego Garcia to be returned in April, and the U.S. Supreme Court also directed the Trump administration to facilitate his return to the country.
U.S. officials presented El Salvador President Nayib Bukele with Abrego Garcia’s arrest warrant on federal charges in Tennessee. The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop, during which the Tennessee Highway Patrol suspected Abrego Garcia of hauling people for money.
The Tennessee Star initially broke news of the Tennessee traffic stop, and police body cam footage indicates officers suspected there was more going on. Tennessee Highway Patrol contacted Biden’s FBI, who instructed them to let him go on his way.
DHS released a report on the traffic stop in April. None of the people in the vehicle had luggage, while they listed the same address as Abrego Garcia, according to police records.
He told officers he was traveling from Texas to Maryland, via Missouri, to bring in people to perform construction work. Abrego Garcia also had an expired driver’s license, but the THP let him go with a warning.
Besides several run-ins with police in Maryland, Abrego Garcia’s wife also sought protective orders against him, accusing him of several incidents of domestic violence.
In another twist, the Associated Press reported the case also prompted the resignation of a top supervisor in the U.S. attorney’s office in Nashville, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter.
Ben Schrader, who was chief of the office’s criminal division, posted to social media around the time the indictment was being handed down.
“It has been an incredible privilege to serve as a prosecutor with the Department of Justice, where the only job description I’ve ever known is to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons.”
