Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man mistakenly deported from Maryland in 2020 under the Trump administration, has returned to the United States to face federal criminal charges, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday.
Abrego Garcia is accused of leading a long-running human smuggling operation and transporting undocumented migrants across the U.S. He was indicted by a Tennessee grand jury on May 21 on multiple charges, including human trafficking, illegal transport of firearms, and drug smuggling. Authorities allege that between 2016 and 2025, he made more than 100 trips moving migrants from Texas to Maryland and worked with co-conspirators, some linked to the MS-13 gang—an affiliation his legal team strongly denies.
His return to the U.S. comes after the Salvadoran government agreed to extradite him at the request of American officials. Bondi said the decision followed the presentation of an arrest warrant and ongoing cooperation between the two countries.
The case has drawn national attention since Abrego Garcia was deported despite a 2019 immigration court ruling granting him protection from removal due to credible fears of gang persecution in El Salvador. Civil liberties groups and congressional Democrats criticized the deportation as an example of the Trump administration’s overreach on immigration enforcement.
After a legal battle, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the administration to arrange his return. Justice Sonia Sotomayor condemned his deportation, calling it a “warrantless arrest” without legal justification. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis has since launched an inquiry into whether the administration attempted to defy court orders.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, Andrew Rossman, welcomed his client’s return, stating, “This action proves what we’ve long maintained—that the government had the power to bring him back and chose not to. Now he’ll have the opportunity to face these allegations in court, with the due process he was previously denied.”
Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, who visited Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, said, “This case isn’t just about one man—it’s about upholding constitutional rights. The administration must now make its case in court, as it should have done from the beginning.”
The indictment also links Abrego Garcia to the transportation of firearms and narcotics between Texas and Maryland, and names him as part of the smuggling network involved in a deadly 2021 trailer crash in Mexico that killed 50 migrants.
Abrego Garcia is expected to enter a plea in court soon. If convicted, he will serve his sentence in the U.S. before being deported back to El Salvador.
REUTER/S.S