Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia? Man returns from wrongful deportation
At a June 6 press conference, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi accused the Maryland man of making over 100 trips to smuggle illegal immigrants across the nation.
"Thousands of illegal aliens were smuggled," Bondi told reporters. "The defendant traded the innocence of minor children for profit. There are even more disturbing facts that the grand jury uncovered."
The U.S. government again attested that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 criminal gang, an allegation his attorneys and family have heavily denied.
"We should treat any of these charges with a high degree of suspicion and he should get a fair hearing in court because he isn't getting one in the court of public opinion," said Chris Newman, Legal Director at the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, which represents Abrego Garcia's family.
Newman said he was recently denied from meeting with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, alongside Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Maryland. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, met with Abrego Garcia briefly in El Salvador.
Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia?
Abrego Garcia is a 29-year-old sheet metal worker who grew up in the El Salvador capital of San Salvador, in a neighborhood known as Los Nogales. He fled to the U.S. as a teenager for a new life, eventually moved to Maryland and became a father of three, as USA TODAY previously reported.
On March 12, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pulled him over while he driving with his 5-year-old son. Three days later, he was deported to El Salvador's CECOT mega prison for terrorists.
The deportation led to eventual standoff among President Donald Trump, the courts, some members of Congress and the Salvadoran government.
The Justice Department insists Abrego Garcia is a member of a dangerous criminal gang, while he insists he is not.
Why was deported to El Salvador?
The Trump administration deemed the deportation a mistake caused by an administrative "error."
However the White House, argued it had no authority to bring him back to the U.S. because he is in a foreign country.
Previously: Trump's team acknowledges 'administrative error' led to deportation to El Salvador
What are Kilmar Abrego Garcia's criminal charges?
Abrego Garcia has been indicted on two charges of unlawful transport of undocumented immigrants for financial gain in Tennessee in May, as reported by USA TODAY.
Though police have never charged Abrego Garcia with domestic violence, his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura filed a 2021 protection order alleging instances of violence in 2019, 2020 and 2021. In the filing, she alleged that Abrego Garcia "punched and scratched" her.
What is Kilmar Abrego Garcia's legal status?
Abrego Garcia was granted a legal status in 2019 in which an immigration judge ruled the Maryland resident could not be deported to El Salvador because he had a "well-grounded fear of future persecution," as previously reported by USA TODAY.
Due to the 2019 ruling, a U.S. district judge ordered the Trump administration to return him back to the U.S., with the U.S. Supreme Court later ordering the administration to "facilitate" his release.
What has Trump said about Kilmar Abrego Garcia?
President Trump has not yet commented on Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S.
However, the Trump administration has insisted that the El Salvador native is a member of the MS-13 gang, an accusation a federal judge has questioned due to the strength of the government's evidence. Abrego Garcia's attorneys have insisted he has not been a member of the gang.
Contributing: Erin Mansfield, Nick Penzenstadler, Will Carless, Bart Jansen and staff, USA TODAY
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Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Abrego Garcia ordered released pending trial on migrant smuggling charges
NEW YORK, June 22 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Sunday ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the migrant returned to the U.S. in early June after being wrongfully deported to his native El Salvador, released on bail pending his criminal trial on migrant smuggling charges. But the decision by U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville, Tennessee does not necessarily mean Abrego, as he prefers to be known, will go home to his family. The judge had acknowledged at a June 13 court hearing that Abrego was likely to be placed in immigration detention even if he is released. Abrego, a Maryland resident whose wife and young child are U.S. citizens, was deported on March 15 to El Salvador, despite a 2019 immigration court ruling that he not be sent there because he could be persecuted by gangs. Officials called his removal an "administrative error," but for months said they could not bring him back. Critics of President Donald Trump pointed to Abrego's case as evidence his administration was prioritizing increased deportations over due process, the bedrock principle that people in the U.S., whether citizens or not, can contest governmental actions against them in the courts. Trump, who has pledged to crack down on illegal immigration, has said Abrego belongs to the MS-13 gang - an accusation that his lawyers deny. The Justice Department brought Abrego back to the U.S. on June 6 after earlier securing an indictment charging him with working with at least five co-conspirators as part of a smuggling ring to bring immigrants to the United States illegally. Prosecutors say Abrego, 29, picked up migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border more than 100 times, and also transported firearms and drugs. Abrego has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers say the Trump administration brought the charges to cover up their violations of Abrego's rights, and say the alleged co-conspirators cooperating with prosecutors should not be trusted because they are seeking relief from deportation and criminal charges of their own. In her ruling Sunday, Holmes said the government failed to show that Abrego posed a danger to the community or was unlikely to appear in court, scheduling a hearing for Wednesday. In a separate civil case, Greenbelt, Maryland-based U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis is investigating whether the Trump administration violated her order to facilitate Abrego's return from El Salvador. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld that order.
NBC News
3 hours ago
- NBC News
Government files appeal after Kilmar Abrego Garcia ordered released by federal judge
The government on Sunday appealed a federal judge's order to release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia pending trial on human smuggling charges, another chapter in the saga of the Maryland father who had who had been erroneously deported to El Salvador. The administration of President Donald Trump admitted mistakenly deporting Abrego Garcia in March, and the U.S. Supreme Court ordered it to facilitate his return. Upon his return earlier this month, though, Abrego Garcia was hit with federal charges of conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal immigrants for financial gain and unlawful transportation of illegal immigrants for monetary gain. He pleaded not guilty. 'Abrego, like every person arrested on federal criminal charges, is entitled to a full and fair determination of whether he must remain in federal custody pending trial,' U.S. Magistrate Barbara D. Holmes of the Middle District of Tennessee wrote in her opinion on Sunday. 'The Court will give Abrego the due process that he is guaranteed.' The government quickly filed a request to stay the order and keep Abrego Garcia in custody, a filing that made clear it would again subject him to deportation proceedings. The government argued that a stay, or pause, would allow the court 'to conduct meaningful review' of custody ahead of the judge's ruling on a separate court filing. 'He will remain in custody pending deportation and Judge Holmes' release order would not immediately release him to the community under any circumstance,' Department of Justice lawyers said in request for a stay on Sunday. In concluding Abrego Garcia should be released pending trial, with certain conditions, Holmes had faulted the government for its language surrounding the case and indicated the man has been so far denied ordinary due process that might come to any defendant. She noted that government lawyers have used the terms "human smuggling" and "human trafficking" interchangeably, though the former refers to helping someone willfully enter a country while the latter refers to bringing someone to a country against their will. She also noted that the government accused Abrego Garcia of being "involved" in transporting a minor as part of the his alleged smuggling — without solid and specific evidence of such. Holmes set a hearing for Wednesday to discuss terms of Abrego Garcia's release and ordered federal authorities to produce him for the event. The judge held little hope that the defendant would actually be free, however, noting that immigration authorities were likely to detain him upon release because he's allegedly in the United States without permission. "Either Abrego will remain in the custody of the Attorney General or her designee pending trial if detained under the Bail Reform Act or he will likely remain in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ('ICE') custody subject to anticipated removal proceedings that are outside the jurisdiction of this Court," she wrote in her decision.
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Judge orders Kilmar Abrego Garcia's release from jail before trial, but ICE plans to detain him
A Tennessee judge on Sunday ordered the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from jail while he awaits a federal trial on human smuggling charges, but he is not expected to be allowed to go free. The mistaken deportation of Abrego Garcia, a citizen of El Salvador who was living in Maryland, has become a flashpoint in President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. Prosecutors said at his June 13 detention hearing that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would take him into custody if he were released on the criminal charges and he could be deported before he has a chance to stand trial. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara D. Holmes, who ordered Abrego Garcia's release, has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday to discuss the conditions of his release. The U.S. government has already filed a motion to appeal the judge's release order. Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty to the smuggling charges that his attorneys have characterized as an attempt to justify the deportation mistake after the fact.
