Top Trump officials had been warning for weeks that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran illegal migrant whom Democrats turned into a deportation martyr, was a bad guy.

Now, they have delivered the goods.

In court documents filed last week in a criminal case against Mr. Abrego Garcia, the Justice Department said he spent nine years as a migrant smuggler, part of a ring that helped “thousands” of illegal immigrants, including gang members and unaccompanied children, get into the U.S.

He also trafficked guns and drugs and solicited child pornography, including asking a juvenile to provide nude photos and video, the government said.

Armed with an indictment and those accusations, the Trump administration reversed its insistence that Mr. Abrego Garcia would never set foot in the U.S. again.

“Abrego Garcia has landed in the United States to face justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi announced.

In court documents filed Sunday, Mr. Abrego Garcia’s attorneys called the charges governmental subterfuge.

“Two things are now crystal clear. First, the government has always had the ability to return Abrego Garcia, but it has simply refused to do so. Second, the government has conducted a determined stalling campaign to stave off contempt sanctions long enough to concoct a politically face-saving exit from its own predicament,” said Andrew Rossman, the lead attorney.

Ms. Bondi said Mr. Abrego Garcia had been in the custody of El Salvador, where the U.S. deported him on March 15 as an accused member of MS-13.

He quickly became the face of Democrats’ anti-Trump sentiment, with rallies outside the Maryland courthouse where his family pleaded a case for him to be returned.

The Trump administration initially said he was wrongly deported to El Salvador. An immigration judge ruled in 2019 that he was a deportable alien but couldn’t be sent to his home country because he risked persecution or torture by 18th Street, a rival gang.

Later, the Trump administration said Mr. Abrego Garcia’s history as an MS-13 associate superseded the block on deportation to El Salvador.

In the court documents filed Friday, the Justice Department further undercut the deportation blockade. Prosecutors said Mr. Abrego Garcia’s fear of violence in El Salvador stemmed from his participation in the killing of the mother of an 18th Street member.

Despite intense legal wrangling and a Supreme Court order that the government “facilitate” his return, the Trump administration left him in El Salvador. U.S. officials said he was in El Salvador’s custody.

Ms. Bondi said it wasn’t until the U.S. won an indictment late last month that El Salvador was presented with an arrest warrant that Mr. Abrego Garcia could be returned.

She said all the new information was developed in the past couple of months after Mr. Abrego Garcia, assisted by immigration rights advocates, started challenging his deportation.

In an exchange last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Democrats about embracing Mr. Abrego Garcia.

“We deported gang members. Gang members, including the one you had a margarita with. And that guy is a human trafficker. And that guy is a gangbanger, and that and and the evidence is going to be clear in the days to come,” Mr. Rubio said.

He aimed his remarks specifically at Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat who made a high-profile pilgrimage to El Salvador to demand a visit with Mr. Abrego Garcia in the prison where the senator thought he was being held.

After a day of negotiating, El Salvador arranged a meeting with Mr. Van Hollen at his hotel. They sat and chatted in front of drinks, including margaritas that the senator said were placed there by the Salvadoran hosts.

Mr. Van Hollen returned to say he never asked Mr. Abrego Garcia the key question of whether he was an MS-13 member, which the administration said was the reason it deported him.

Even then, Mr. Van Hollen shifted his explanation away from defending Mr. Abrego Garcia as a wronged “Maryland father” to arguing that it was a matter of everyone’s rights.

Mr. Van Hollen continued that line of defense after the announcement Friday.

“As I have repeatedly said, this is not about the man. It’s about his constitutional rights and the rights of all,” he said. “The administration will now have to make its case in the court of law, as it should have all along.”

How Mr. Abrego Garcia’s return affects the civil case in the federal courthouse in Maryland is unclear.

Judge Paula Xinis has said Mr. Abrego Garcia’s initial arrest on March 12 was “unlawful.”

The criminal case was brought in a federal court in Tennessee, where Mr. Abrego Garcia was caught on video during a traffic stop in 2022 while carrying a carload of people. Although police suspected him of smuggling, he was not charged.

Now he has been.

The detention document filed in court said Mr. Abrego Garcia was stopped for speeding while driving a Chevrolet Suburban fitted with an aftermarket third row of seats to carry nine Hispanic males.

Cellphone and license plate reader data showed he was lying about his activities and placed a call to a convicted alien smuggler when he was stopped. That thread led investigators to determine he was a frequent smuggler who had carried 50 people a month for years.

Prosecutors said he flexed his MS-13 membership to help with smuggling.

They said he sometimes carried drugs or guns.

He “solicited nude photographs and videos of a minor,” prosecutors said. They said a child pornography investigation was continuing and no charges had been filed.

In court documents filed with Judge Xinis on Sunday, Mr. Abrego Garcia’s attorneys said bringing Mr. Abrego Garcia to Tennessee instead of Maryland was an act of “contempt” of the court.

Mr. Rossman, the lead attorney, said the U.S. indicted Mr. Abrego Garcia even though its attorneys told Judge Xinis he couldn’t be brought back.

Republicans said Sunday that the case should give Democrats pause before they lionize illegal immigrants.

“What I’m amazed at … is seeing the Democrats hold Mr. Garcia up as if he is some golden boy, poster child that they all rally behind, when he is in fact related to MS-13, a trafficker. He beats his wife. I mean, it is hardly a model for the Democratic Party,” Rep. Michael McCaul, Texas Republican, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “I think they are making a terrible mistake politically, and we saw that play out in the last election.”

Mr. Abrego Garcia was the second person to be returned by the Trump administration last week.

The Homeland Security Department also allowed a Guatemalan man identified in court documents only by the initials OCG to return to the U.S. He was wrongly deported to Mexico without being asked whether he had a fear of persecution or torture in that country.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.