Inset: President-elect Donald Trump on “Meet the Press” Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024 (NBC News/YouTube). Background: Immigration records for Kilmar Abrego Garcia (WTTG/YouTube).
Despite the Trump administration claiming for months that Kilmar Abrego Garcia could not be returned to the United States, the protected resident who in March was mistakenly deported to a notorious work prison in El Salvador without due process, is currently en route back to the country.
Abrego Garcia, on Friday afternoon, was being transported back to the U.S., first reported by ABC News and later confirmed by the Department of Justice. Upon his arrival, the Salvadoran national will be federally charged with two counts of illegally transporting undocumented migrants in the U.S.
A federal grand jury in Tennessee indicted Abrego Garcia on the two charges last month.
“This is what American justice looks like,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said at a press conference on Friday. “Upon completion of his sentence, we anticipate he will be returned to his home country of El Salvador.”
The unsealed indictment alleges Albrego Garcia played a significant role in an “alien smuggling ring,” Bondi said. “This was his full-time job.”
The charges stem from a November 2022 traffic stop in which Abrego Garcia was transporting about 10 people in an SUV that was pulled over by the Tennessee State Highway Patrol. Abrego Garcia, who was said to be driving 75 mph in a 65 mph zone, told the troopers that he and the other men in the vehicle were on their way back from a construction job in St. Louis, Missouri.
Federal authorities are alleging that Abrego Garcia had been part of a yearslong scheme to transport illegal migrants out of Texas and into the interior of the U.S.
When asked by reporters why Abrego Garcia was only now being indicted — nearly three years after the traffic stop — she said the charges were based on “new facts” that had come to light since Abrego Garcia’s mistaken deportation without due process became a political flashpoint.
The indictment alleges that from 2016 to 2025, Abrego Garcia “conspired to bring undocumented aliens to the United States from countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Ecuador, and elsewhere, ultimately passing through Mexico before crossing into Texas.”
Abrego Garcia and several other alleged co-conspirators are accused of transporting “thousands of undocumented aliens into the U.S., “many of whom” were allegedly members of the MS-13 gang
“Abrego Garcia and [co-conspirator 1] ordinarily picked up the undocumented aliens in the Houston, Texas area shortly after the aliens had unlawfully crossed the Southern border of the United States from Mexico,” the document states. “[Abrego Garcia] and [co-conspirator 1] then transported the undocumented aliens from Texas to other parts of the United States to further the aliens’ unlawful presence in the United States.”
In addition, authorities allege that Abrego Garcia also transported firearms illegally purchased in Texas and transported them to Maryland for resale.
News of Abrego Garcia’s return marks a major development in one of the most high-profile and contentious lawsuits of President Donald Trump’s second term in office. The case has consistently garnered national attention, particularly since the administration spent weeks appearing to ignore orders from a district court, appellate court, and the U.S. Supreme Court directing the administration to “facilitate” his return.
Read the unsealed indictment here.
This is a developing story.
