Main: President Donald Trump speaks with reporters as he signs executive orders and proclamations in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, May 5, 2025, in Washington (AP Photo/Alex Brandon). Inset: Kilmar Abrego Garcia in updated photo (CASA).
President Donald Trump says he had no role in bringing mistakenly deported Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the United States, telling NBC News the decision was made solely by the Justice Department and not him personally.
“That wasn’t my decision,” Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker in an interview Saturday. “It should be a very easy case,” he reportedly added. “I think it should be.”
Trump also said he did not speak with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele about Abrego Garcia’s return before it went down on Friday, per Welker. The 29-year-old El Salvador native was transported back to the U.S. to be federally charged with two counts of illegally transporting undocumented migrants into the country. It was the DOJ that reportedly signed off on the move after “new facts” came to light following Abrego Garcia’s deportation.
“Department of Justice decided to do it that way, and that’s fine,” Trump told Welker, speaking to her in a phone call.
Abrego Garcia was transported to the U.S. on Friday after the Trump administration claimed for months that the government had its hands tied and couldn’t do anything to get him back. A legally protected Maryland resident, Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported in March to a notorious work prison in El Salvador without due process. His attorneys accused Homeland Security and DOJ officials of defying a federal judge and the U.S. Supreme Court by refusing to provide any information regarding what was being done to “facilitate” his return.
A federal grand jury in Tennessee indicted Abrego Garcia on the criminal charges last month. His 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.
Asked by reporters on Friday why Abrego Garcia was only now being indicted — nearly three years after the traffic stop that got him on authorities’ radar — U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the charges were based on “new facts” that had come to light since Abrego Garcia’s removal became a political flashpoint.
“This is what American justice looks like,” Bondi said at a press conference. “Upon completion of his sentence, we anticipate he will be returned to his home country of El Salvador.”
Speaking to NBC on Saturday, Trump tore into people who have publicly defended Abrego Garcia, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who went to El Salvador to check in with Abrego Garcia and local officials after the man’s family claimed they hadn’t heard from him and were worried about his safety.
“He’s a loser,” Trump said about Van Hollen. “He’s trying to defend a man who’s got a horrible record of abuse, abuse of women in particular.”
The statement stems from domestic abuse filings and a civil protective order requested by Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, against him four years ago. Sura came forward in April and said she “acted out of caution” following an alleged “disagreement with Kilmar.”
Reports about Abrego Garcia’s alleged criminal past and ties to MS-13 were touted by the Trump administration for months, but evidence was never shown or presented in court — other than photos of hand tattoos — until his Tennessee indictment, according to his lawyers.
In addition to illegally transporting migrants, authorities allege that Abrego Garcia also moved illegal firearms from Texas to Maryland for resale.
“This was his full-time job,” Bondi concluded about the alleged criminal activity.
Jerry Lambe contributed to this report.
