A man wrongly deported to El Salvador has been returned to the United States to face criminal charges.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been charged in connection with what President Donald Trump's administration has called a massive human smuggling operation in which immigrants were illegally brought into the country.
His unexpected return from El Salvador was the latest development in a saga that has sparked a protracted standoff between Trump administration officials and the judiciary over a deportation that officials initially acknowledged was wrong but then persisted with, seemingly ignoring judges' orders that should have cleared the way for his return to the United States.
The turn of events came after U.S. authorities served El Salvador President Nayib Bukele with an arrest warrant on federal charges in Tennessee, alleging that Abrego Garcia played a major role in smuggling immigrants into the country for money. He is expected to be prosecuted in the U.S. and, if convicted, sent back to his home country of El Salvador after the trial, officials said.
“This is what the American legal system looks like,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in announcing Abrego Garcia's return and the grand jury indictment.
Abrego Garcia's lawyers described the case as “meritless.”
“The jury is not going to look at the evidence and find that this metal worker is the ringleader of an international MS-13 smuggling conspiracy,” attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg argued.
Federal Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville, Tennessee, ordered Abrego Garcia to remain in custody until at least next Friday, when he will have an arraignment and detention hearing.
Abrego Garcia appeared in court wearing a white, short-sleeved button-down shirt. When asked if he understood the charges, he told the judge through an interpreter: “Yes. I understand.”
Democrats and immigrant rights groups have called for Abrego Garcia’s release, and several politicians, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, where Abrego Garcia lived for many years, have even visited him in El Salvador. A federal judge ordered his return in April, and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal, ordering the government to work to get him back.
However, the news that Abrego Garcia
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
