A 29-year-old Salvadoran man, Kilmar Ábrego García, who was mistakenly deported from the United States in March despite a Supreme Court order to facilitate his return, has been brought back to face prosecution on two federal criminal charges, US authorities confirmed on Friday.
Ábrego García, accused of participating in a years-long human smuggling operation, appeared before a federal court in Nashville, Tennessee, after being extradited from El Salvador. He is charged with one count of conspiracy to transport undocumented migrants and a second count of unlawful transportation of undocumented aliens, according to a grand jury indictment unsealed Friday.
The Justice Department alleges that Ábrego García played a “significant role” in an extensive smuggling network that transported undocumented migrants—including members of the MS-13 gang—from Texas to Maryland and other states more than 100 times since 2016.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said that El Salvador agreed to release Ábrego García after the US presented a formal arrest warrant, citing the severity of the charges. “He facilitated illegal entry into the country at scale, including trafficking individuals linked to terrorist organisations,” she stated. However, no terrorism-related charges were filed.
The Trump administration’s decision to deport Ábrego García in March triggered outrage and legal challenges. At the time, he was under federal protection from deportation, granted by an immigration judge in 2019 who cited credible fear of persecution from gangs in El Salvador.
Despite this, Ábrego García was deported to the notorious Cecot mega-prison under a wartime law invoked by President Trump—the Alien Enemies Act—raising alarm among human rights advocates. A Supreme Court ruling in April ordered the administration to “facilitate” his return, which the White House resisted for weeks, claiming administrative error.
Simon Sandoval Moshenberg, Ábrego García’s lawyer, called the charges “preposterous” and accused the government of using the courts to cover up an illegal deportation. “The government disappeared Kilmar to a foreign prison in violation of a court order. Now they’re bringing him back, not to correct their mistake, but to prosecute him,” he told reporters in Washington.
He demanded a “full and fair trial” before the same immigration judge who previously granted his client protection, describing the events as an “abuse of power, not justice.”
President Donald Trump defended the administration’s actions, telling reporters Friday that Ábrego García was “a bad guy” and praised the Department of Justice for pursuing the charges. “We’re protecting American communities,” Trump said.
In El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele, an ally of Trump, confirmed his country’s cooperation. “If the US requests the return of a gang member to face charges, of course we wouldn’t refuse,” Bukele posted on social media.
Ábrego García’s legal saga began in 2019 when he was arrested alongside three others in Maryland. Though never convicted of any crimes in the US or El Salvador, he was accused by the Trump administration of MS-13 affiliation and smuggling weapons and narcotics—a claim he has repeatedly denied.
His lawyers note that the charges unsealed Friday focus solely on alleged human trafficking activities. No gang, drug, or terrorism charges were included in the indictment.
Ábrego García is scheduled for arraignment on June 13 before US Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes, who will also determine whether he remains in custody before trial. Prosecutors have requested pretrial detention, arguing he poses both a flight risk and a danger to the community.
Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who advocated for Ábrego García’s return, said on Friday, “This is not about the man—it’s about his constitutional rights and the rights of all. The administration must now make its case in court, where it should have been all along.”
For now, Ábrego García remains in federal custody as one of the highest-profile defendants in an immigration case that has tested the boundaries of executive power, human rights, and due process.
Chioma Kalu
Follow us on:
