Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been charged with smuggling illegals around the nation over the course of nine years. Garcia, a migrant from El Salvador who was deported in March despite a court order granting a “withholding of removal,” is now back to face the charges.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday, June 6, that the 29-year-old Salvadoran national has landed in the United States and is set to face federal charges for human smuggling and conspiracy.
Garcia entered the US illegally in 2012 when he was 16 years old. He claimed to be escaping from gang threats in his home country of El Salvado, and he made his way to Maryland to live with his brother.
In 2019, Garcia was granted a “withholding of removal” status by an immigration judge, which allowed him to legally remain and work in the US. The judge allegedly based the decision on a finding that Garcia faced a likely threat of persecution by gangs if he returned to El Salvador. Specifically, his lawyers stated that he had a “well-founded” fear of persecution from Barrio-18, a rival gang of MS-13, the gang Garcia was accused of being a member of.
That’s relevant thanks to the nature of his charges. AG Bondi told reporters Friday that a grand jury in Tennessee indicted Garcia on May 21. The indictment alleges that Garcia made a career of the “unlawful transportation of illegal aliens for financial gain,” including minor children, over the course of nine years. If convicted, Garcia will serve time in US prison before being deported once again to El Salvador – and this time, it won’t be an “error.”
“Now, after months of delay and secrecy, they’re bringing him back, not to correct their error, but to prosecute him,” Simon Sandoval, Garcia’s lawyer, told NPR. “This shows that they were playing games with the court all along.”
The Trump administration has claimed to be unable to get Garcia back – a claim that may seem at first blush to be false in light of recent developments. Now, could the US government have leveraged economic or political power over El Salvador to coerce the nation to return Garcia? Probably – at the very least, an attempt could have been made and seemingly wasn’t. That said, the Trump administration did request Garcia’s return when news broke about his deportation despite the 2019 court order.
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele told American reporters that he had no intention of returning Garcia, despite the fact the US Justice Department said the deportation was a mistake.
Bukele didn’t want to un-deport Garcia. But he was willing to turn him over to the DOJ once presented with a felony arrest warrant. Handing a prisoner to another country for prosecution and releasing that person to roam free – in El Salvador or the US – are two entirely different things. This, however, raises another question: The DOJ admitted that Garcia was deported in error – despite his prior illegal status, the credible claim that his own wife had a restraining order against him, and his lawyer all but outright calling him a member of MS13 in order to get him protected status. So if he overcomes these charges and is exonerated, does he get to stay?