

Kilmar Abrego Garcia Will Return to U.S. to Face Criminal Charges for Trafficking Illegal Immigrants

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, is returning to the United States to face criminal charges for allegedly transporting illegal immigrants within the U.S., the Department of Justice said Friday.
A federal grand jury indicted Abrego Garcia, who was deported two months ago from Maryland to El Salvador.
Prosecutors say Abrego Garcia was involved in a nearly decade-long conspiracy to transport thousands of illegal immigrants from Texas to other areas around the country. The illegal immigrants, some of whom were members of the MS-13 gang, came from Mexico and Central America.
While the allegations were not included in the indictment, Attorney General Pam Bondi said during a Friday press conference that Abrego Garcia also solicited nude images from a minor and was linked to the murder of a rival gang member’s mother.
Abrego Garcia, an alleged member of MS-13 in the U.S. illegally, was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador despite a judicial order barring his deportation to El Salvador based on his claims that he’d be persecuted by a gang if returned to his home country. Under the order, Abrego Garcia could have been legally deported to another country, just not to El Salvador.
Government officials acknowledged in court that his deportation was an administrative error. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. for proper deportation proceedings.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, has said documents prove Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13 and has brought to light previous domestic violence allegations brought against the Maryland man by his wife in 2021, along with a 2022 report suspecting him of engaging in labor/human trafficking.
Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, petitioned for an order of protection against him in May 2021, according to Maryland court documents. She also filed for an order in 2020. She claimed he punched, scratched, grabbed, and bruised her.
And a 2022 Homeland Security Investigations report stated that Abrego Garcia was suspected of human trafficking and that “official law enforcement investigations” revealed that Abrego-Garcia was a member of MS-13.
The report says a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper stopped Abrego Garcia in 2022 after he was “observed speeding” and unable to stay in his lane. The trooper discovered eight individuals in the car with Abrego Garcia, who said he was driving from Houston, Texas, to Temple Hills, Md., to “perform construction work.” The trooper suspected Abrego Garcia was trafficking the passengers as there was no luggage in the vehicle and the passengers gave the same address as Abrego Garcia’s home address.
Lawyers for Abrego Garcia contend he was living in the U.S. legally and is not a member of MS-13.