Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to U.S. to face charges from Tennessee traffic stop

Amna Nawaz:

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is now back in the United States.

Prosecutors had acknowledged that the Maryland resident was wrongly deported to a prison in El Salvador in March when the president invoked the wartime Alien Enemies Act. A grand jury in Tennessee indicted him last month on two charges related to a traffic stop in 2022. The indictment, unsealed today, alleges that Garcia committed conspiracy to transport aliens and unlawfully transported undocumented aliens.

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Garcia's return this afternoon.

Pam Bondi, U.S. Attorney General:

Our government presented El Salvador with an arrest warrant and they agreed to return him to our country.

We're grateful to President Bukele for agreeing to return him to our country to face these very serious charges. This is what American justice looks like.

Amna Nawaz:

If he is convicted, the attorney general said Abrego Garcia would be returned to El Salvador after completing any prison sentence in the United States.

Laura Barron-Lopez is here now with the details.

So, Laura, tell us what else the indictment says and what happens next for Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Laura Barron-Lopez:

So, first, some context.

In 2022, when that traffic stop occurred, Abrego Garcia was not charged with any crime, was not charged with human trafficking, even though an officer at the time documented suspecting human trafficking.

Now, the indictment today, unsealed today, alleges that Abrego Garcia was transporting, as you said, undocumented immigrants, but that also includes transporting — quote — "children on the floorboards of vehicles," according to the indictment.

Now he faces charges in Tennessee. Now there is the expectation that Garcia's wrongful deportation case before a federal judge in Maryland will be dismissed. The federal government is likely to ask for that dismissal, saying that they have now complied with facilitating his return to the United States.

Amna Nawaz:

So, this is a reversal, right, from the White House position. They have been saying for months that he would not be returned to the U.S., that he would stay in that mega-prison in El Salvador known as CECOT.

What is the White House saying about that? And what does this mean, if anything, for the more than 100 other Venezuelan migrants who were deported to that same mega-prison without due process?

Laura Barron-Lopez:

The White House and the Homeland Security Department said in statements to us today — they're essentially not admitting in any of the statements that they sent to us that this was to comply with those multiple judges' orders to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return.

Remember, even the Supreme Court said that they had to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return from CECOT in order to follow due process.

But, rather, the White House is taking a victory lap. And in statements to us, they said that both Democrats and the media were — quote — "played like fools," that they have no credibility.

But the facts are that, again, they were ordered to facilitate his return. Now, that also comes as a federal judge, James Boasberg, said just this week that those 100, more than 100 other Venezuelan migrants who were deported under the Alien Enemies Act, that they have to — that they were illegally deported. That's what he ruled this week.

And he also said that the administration has until next week to come up with a plan so that those men can challenge their deportations. Now, what an immigration lawyer told me who's representing some of those men is that what Abrego Garcia's case means is that the administration, despite what they have said, can work with El Salvador to return some of these migrants that they have deported without due process.

Amna Nawaz:

Laura, before you go, this is the second deportation the administration reversed this week. What do we know about the other case?

Laura Barron-Lopez:

So, this week, the administration had to return a Guatemalan man to the United States that they illegally deported to Mexico, so they provided no due process and a federal judge ordered that they had to return him, giving him due process under the Constitution.

He's now being placed in Arizona detention. I should just note, Amna, that, just moments ago, the president did address the Abrego Garcia return, essentially blaming judges and saying that he disagreed with their initial rulings.

Amna Nawaz:

All right, Laura Barron-Lopez with the very latest on this for us.

Laura, thank you.

Laura Barron-Lopez:

Thank you.