Kilmar Abrego Garcia Returned to the US
He now faces a federal indictment.
ABC New Reports: Kilmar Abrego Garcia, newly returned to US, appears in court on charges of trafficking migrants.
Mistakenly deported Salvadoran native Kilmar Abrego Garcia appeared in a Tennessee courtroom Friday, hours after he was brought back to the United States to face criminal charges for allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the U.S.
More than two months after the Trump administration admitted it mistakenly deported Abrego Garcia from Maryland to his native El Salvador, a two-count indictment unsealed Friday alleges that he participated in a yearslong conspiracy to haul undocumented migrants from Texas to the interior of the country.
The first thing to note is that the Trump administration claimed it was impossible to get Abrego Garcia back (alongside the obviously false claim by President Bukele of El Salvador that he couldn’t send him back). But look! Here he is.
The second thing to note is that those of us calling for his return were concerned with the lack of due process, seeing as how he, and many others, were deported without their cases being adjudicated. So, they have found something to charge him with.
He made his initial court appearance Friday evening in the Middle District of Tennessee, answering “Yes, I understand” in Spanish when U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes asked him if he understood the charges against him.
Judge Homes set a hearing for June 13, where Abrego Garcia will be arraigned on charges and the judge will take up the government’s motion to hold him in pre-trial detention on the grounds that he “poses a danger to the community and a serious risk of flight” He will remain in federal custody in Tennessee pending next week’s hearing.
“If convicted at trial, the defendant faces a maximum punishment of 10 years’ imprisonment for ‘each alien’ he transported,” said the government’s motion for detention, which also contained an allegation — not included in the indictment — that one of Abrego Garcia’s co-conspirators told authorities that Abrego Garcia participated in the murder of a rival gang member’s mother in El Salvador.
And yes, I said “found.”
This is not to say that the charges are false, as I have no way of knowing their validity. What I do know is that there was nary a peep about these allegations. As such, it seems more than likely that they have been looking for something to charge him with before bringing him back to the US. The narrative of the dangers of immigrants must not be failed. Certainly, the MAGA faithful need something to use to dismiss the concerns of those who insist on due process and humane treatment of immigrants.
To remind everyone, the previous “evidence” against Abrego Garcia was 1) testimony from an informant in New York that Garcia Abrego was in MS-13, and 2) the assertion that tattoos on his fingers were symbols that spelled out MS-13.
There was no mention of the charges that have now been filed. Note that the indictment was issued in Tennessee, not New York.
The ABC News story also includes the following:
The decision to pursue the indictment against Abrego Garcia led to the abrupt departure of Ben Schrader, a high-ranking federal prosecutor in Tennessee, sources briefed on Schrader’s decision told ABC News. Schrader’s resignation was prompted by concerns that the case was being pursued for political reasons, the sources said.
Schrader, who spent 15 years in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nashville and was most recently the chief of the criminal division, declined to comment when contacted by ABC News.
Does this prove anything? Clearly not. Does it raise red flags in a situation that already has several crimson banners flapping in the breeze? Yes. Yes, it does.
I am not surprised that a returned Abrego Garcia is facing a trial upon his return. I expected that to be the likeliest of outcomes. But it is telling that the charges he is facing have only materialized after Bondi’s DoJ has had a few months to find them.
CNN has a more detailed account here: Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been returned to the United States to face criminal charges.
Let me conclude with a reminder that most of the persons rendered to CECOT did not have criminal records (not that sending convicted criminals to a gulag is defensible). As the Texas Tribune recently reported, Trump administration knew most Venezuelans deported from Texas to a Salvadoran prison had no U.S. convictions.
The Trump administration knew that the vast majority of the 238 Venezuelan immigrants it sent to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador in mid-March had not been convicted of crimes in the United States before it labeled them as terrorists and deported them, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security data that has not been previously reported.
[…]
The data indicates that the government knew that only six of the immigrants were convicted of violent crimes: four for assault, one for kidnapping and one for a weapons offense. And it shows that officials were aware that more than half, or 130, of the deportees were not labeled as having any criminal convictions or pending charges; they were labeled as only having violated immigration laws.
As for foreign offenses, our own review of court and police records from around the United States and in Latin American countries where the deportees had lived found evidence of arrests or convictions for 20 of the 238 men. Of those, 11 involved violent crimes such as armed robbery, assault or murder, including one man who the Chilean government had asked the U.S. to extradite to face kidnapping and drug charges there. Another four had been accused of illegal gun possession.
We conducted a case-by-case review of all the Venezuelan deportees. It’s possible there are crimes and other information in the deportees’ backgrounds that did not show up in our reporting or the internal government data, which includes only minimal details for nine of the men. There’s no single publicly available database for all crimes committed in the U.S., much less abroad. But everything we did find in public records contradicted the Trump administration’s assertions as well.
The evidence, therefore, hardly suggests that these were the “worst of the worst” as Trump likes to claim.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in response to our findings that “ProPublica should be embarrassed that they are doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens who are a threat,” adding that “the American people strongly support” the president’s immigration agenda.
When asked about the differences between the administration’s public statements about the deportees and the way they are labeled in government data, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin largely repeated previous public statements. She insisted, without providing evidence, that the deportees were dangerous, saying, “These individuals categorized as ‘non-criminals’ are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gang members and more — they just don’t have a rap sheet in the U.S.”
I will conclude by noting the grim irony of an official spokesperson of the US government asserting that they are punishing “human rights abusers” without evidence or due process, while that punishment is a clear human rights abuse being perpetrated with glee by the sitting administration.
This is a perfect example of why in court moving forward the Trump administration cannot be assumed to be acting in “good faith and fair dealing” by judges. It has been painfully clear that they have been repeatedly and intentionally lying to the courts on these and other issues.
And we are starting to see Judges, including at the USSC (with the exception of Alito and Thomas), recognize this.
I cannot think of anything occurring at this scale in any past administration (including Trump I).
It’s also really scary to acknowledge that the Federal Government can no longer be trusted in this way.
– Lawrentiy Berea
@Joe: Indeed.
When Trump was being indicted by various courts the MAGA goto phrase was: “Prosecutors can get an indictment against a ham sandwich”
Same “rule” applies here.
@Bobert:
Had the same thought when I saw this headline yesterday.
@Bobert:
FWIW there is a lot of truth to this due to the far lower standard of evidence and the fact that grand juries only hear the prosecutions side of things.
Well that’s highly sanitized.
He was returned after the President of El Salvadore was presented with an indictment. Not by magic, or randomness.
And the “Maryland dad” made 100 trips back to El Salvadore. I guess “Maryland dads” get homesick a lot. Well, at least he returns with minors. Probably for youth soccer camp.
So with all the concern over due process one would think there would be rejoicing for the, ahem, “Maryland dad” to get his day in court. Well, here we go.
@Connor:
Claiming you’re smarter than all of us baised cranks while advancing the completely ridiculous idea that we required the permission from the President of El Salvador to return a prisoner we were paying him to detain debases you.
Is that how this works?
@Connor:
Call. Can you provide some evidence to back that up. I tried googling the claim and found nothing.
I love how yesterday you were bemoaning you being unfairly prosecuted by the IRS and then today make fun of someone whom the government openly admits in court documents “was mistakenly deported.” Again, your commitment to consistent reasoning is something to behold.
@Matt Bernius: While I would not be surprised to find out that KAG has committed some random crime during his time in the US (and we all now know that that any crime, no matter how minor or random, is grounds for immediate deportation), I am surprised how the administration is promising to prosecute for dozens of cases of human trafficking, assault, gang membership, etc. Maybe they have all those goods (color me skeptical), but it feels like they are setting themselves up to disappoint. But it’s like Connor’s 100 trips to El Salvador. How is that credible? How did KAG get back in the US 100 times with an existing order of deportation?
@Matt Bernius:
Bootlicking MAGA cucks are committed only to being obedient, lobotomized Trump slaves. Excuses excuses excuses, and deceit when necessary.
@Connor:
Source? In 2019, a federal judge forbade the US government from sending Mr. Garcia back to El Salvador, due to the imminent danger he faced there. If authorities — including at entry points — then missed that this non-citizen was still traveling back-and-forth to El Salvador more than once a month, that would certainly be big news, indicating massive legal and administrative breakdowns.
I can’t wait for you to provide credible evidence backing your “100 trips” declaration. As someone who loves to present himself as the only serious and sober adult in the room, there’s no way you would have made such a claim with no evidence, thereby exposing yourself as an unserious, immature, gullible, lying fool, right?
Humoring the twisted logic some are using to justify the administration’s position… If the DOJ had not been able to obtain an indictment against Garcia, then they could not have compelled Bukele to release him from the El Salvadoran prison so he could be returned to the U.S.!?!?
Seriously, though, this plainly demonstrates what was already known–that the administration can, at any time, return people that El Salvador is keeping in prison on behalf of the U.S.
And what even are the circumstances under which an administration could have another country imprison people, sent from the U.S., on behalf of the U.S. but without the U.S. maintaining accountability for those people?
Chris Van Hollen, who has been probably the prominent elected official on this matter, said this yesterday, which addresses the core issue:
@Connor:
An indictment was in no way necessary for Bukele to return him. Even more germane to your claim, an indictment has no power to compel Bukele to act.
Citation, please.
Also: your usage of “Maryland dad” definitely tells us all an awful lot about your media consumption and the way you process that consumption.
Hmm, someone said this
Oh, yeah. I said it. In the post above.
I will say this: it is telling that he is facing charges that did not exist prior to his removal. As such, he really isn’t getting the due process he was denied.
Also: I see you stopped reading before the post got to the Texas Tribune story.
@Joe:
Yeah, I rolled my eyes hard when I read that they said they were going to charge him with human trafficking, but then charged only 8 USC 1324, Alien Smuggling. Human trafficking under U.S. law has a specific and explicit definition, which includes coercion, compulsion, and corrupt exploitation against the will of the traffickee. None of that is covered under 1324. They just use that language to sully the character of their target in the eyes of their rubes who should, but don’t know any better.
@DeD: It seems plausible that KAG may have knowingly transported an undocumented alien within the borders of the US. It may even be that he was paid to do so. But yes: that’s not “trafficking.”
Of course, given that until about a week ago, at least 350,000 Venezuelans had temporary protective status, how is a person supposed to know for sure someone else’s legal status?
@Joe:
Same. Though given the administration’s use of absurd levels of lawfare against people they consider enemies, I am not surprised they are doing this.
@Steven L. Taylor:
Indeed, Doc T. That includes the officer who made the initial traffic stop in 2022. Was there an official determination by a trained immigration officer that the people KAG was driving were in the U.S. illegally? Was there a determination of alienage? Was KAG simply giving them a ride, or was he knowingly, willingly, and, in violation of 8 USC 1324, furthering their Illinois entry into the U.S.? If these questions can be answered in the affirmative, why didn’t the Trump administration charge him then and deport him lawfully?
These are the questions that a non-MAGA judge is going to want the answers to. They reveal an utter lack of good-faith effort to operate within lawful boundaries, have a tendency to piss off the judge.
@Connor: Really, him making 100 trips to El Salvador makes no sense at all. Use your noggin.
But it doesn’t matter. They will have to prove it in court, rather than just smearing him in the press.
A way to get a Salvadoran national transferred to US custody is to extradite them to face criminal charges in the US.
@JKB: Sure, let’s be obtuse about all this and act like Trump doesn’t have substantial sway with Bukele and that the US isn’t paying El Salvador to house deportees.
@JKB: In re-reading your comment you admit as much: “ A way”. Indeed a way. Not the only way.
@DeD:
That’s “illegal” entry.