NASHVILLE, TN- Kilmar Abrego Garcia, once defended by many as simply a “Maryland father“, was returned to the U.S. Friday to face human trafficking charges, with one lawyer saying he will now become a “Tennessee prisoner.”
Democrats have been begging the Trump administration to return alleged MS-13 gang banger Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States. Friday, they got their wish, albeit under different circumstances than they likely envisioned.
The New York Post reports that Abrego Garcia was presented in a Tennessee courtroom Friday in chains after being returned to the United States to face criminal charges related to the trafficking of thousands of illegals, which Attorney General Pam Bondi said was “his full-time job” for years.
Lawyer Mike Davis offered his own prediction of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, posting, “The Democrats defended Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a Maryland father and a construction worker. They tried to canonize him as Saint Kilmar of Maryland. Now there’s a good chance this ‘Maryland father’ is going to become a Tennessee prisoner.”
“He was a smuggler of humans and children and women,” Bondi said at a press conference, also noting that Abrego Garcia smuggled members of MS-13, the violent criminal gang of which he was a member, into the country.
“One hundred trips, the grand jury found, of smuggling people throughout the country,” the AG said.
To make matters worse, Abrego Garcia, whom Democrats have portrayed simply as “a Maryland father,” allegedly forced one minor he smuggled to submit to naked photos, abused women he was transporting, and was involved in the murder of a rival gang member’s mother, Bondi said.
Abrego Garcia was deported to an El Salvadoran prison in March, which drew outrage from illegal-coddling Democrats, who falsely claimed he had been deported without due process. That led to a famous meeting between him and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who flew to the prison and met with Abrego Garcia. Republicans and conservative pundits slammed Van Hollen for the meeting. Several other Democrats likewise flew to El Salvador in an attempt to meet with Abrego Garcia.
In his Friday courtroom appearance, Abrego Garcia was shackled hand and foot, flanked by Homeland Security agents, The Post wrote, citing local reports. Abrego Garcia told US Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes that he understood the charges he was facing, answering in Spanish. Abrego Garcia is scheduled to be arraigned on June 13 at 10 a.m. and will remain in the custody of the US Marshals until then, WKRN reported.
Abrego Garcia’s attorney called the charges “an abuse of power.”
“They’ll stop at nothing at all–even some of the most preposterous charges imaginable–to avoid admitting that they made a mistake, which is what everyone knows happened in this case,” Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said during a press conference, adding, “Mr. Garcia is going to be vigorously defending the charges against him.”
A federal grand jury indicted Abrego Garcia on May 21 in Tennessee, charging him with being instrumental in a conspiracy to move illegal aliens from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Ecuador through Mexico and into the United States via Texas, where they would then be smuggled to locations nationwide, including Maryland.
“The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring,” Bondi said. “They found this was his full-time job–not a contractor.
“They were using vehicles, SUVs with added seats in the back, floors that had been ripped out,” Bondi continued. “Guns, narcotics, children, women, MS-13 members–this is what the grand jury found.”
An additional court filing asking for his detention noted that Abrego Garcia had demanded the US grant him asylum, claiming rival gang members would kill him if he returned to El Salvador. That was only, however, because of “the defendant’s own actions in participating in the murder of a rival 18th Street gang member’s mother,” the filing read.
Also, the government said that Abrego Garcia “solicited nude photographs and videos of a minor, beginning in approximately 2020.”
“These facts demonstrate Abrego Garcia is a danger to our community,” Bondi said. “Upon completion of his sentence, we anticipate he will be returned to his home country of El Salvador.”
President Trump praised the DOJ’s action in bringing Abrego Garcia back to the US, telling reporters on Air Force One on Friday, “Bringing him back, you can show how bad he is. He’s a bad guy,” the president said.
Abrego Garcia entered the US illegally in 2011 and, along with his co-conspirators, trafficked thousands of illegal aliens from Mexico and Central America, including MS-13 gang members, in exchange for money, the indictment alleged.
“In order to maximize profits,” kids would be forced to sit on the floor, the document said.
Abrego Garcia’s human smuggling operation was tied to a 2021 tractor-trailer crash in Mexico that killed over 50 of the 180 illegals being transported inside.
The gang would typically pick up illegals in the Houston area and cover their tracks with authorities by concocting stories to tell them. They would also confiscate cell phones from those they were transporting so they couldn’t contact anyone until they reached their destinations, the indictment alleged.
Abrego Garcia’s indictment stemmed in part from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. Body camera footage became public last month, showing Abrego Garcia driving seven other people, none of whom had luggage, on a several-day trip from Texas to Maryland.
In the video, a state trooper is heard noting that Abrego Garcia had $1,400 cash on him, that he “was hauling these people for money,” but was let go with only a ticket for an expired license.
Abrego was arrested on March 12 in Baltimore amid trafficking and other accusations, including that he had ties to MS-13. He was soon deported to an El Salvadoran prison.
“The Justice Department’s Grand Jury indictment against Abrego Garcia proves the unhinged Democrat Party was wrong, and their stenographers in the Fake News Media were once again played like fools,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement after the indictment.
“Abrego Garcia was never an innocent ‘Maryland Man’–Abrego Garcia is an illegal alien terrorist, gang member, and human trafficker who has spent his entire life abusing innocent people, especially women and the most vulnerable,” Leavitt continued.
For his part, Van Hollen tried to spin Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States, claiming the administration “finally relented to our demands for compliance with court orders.”
‘As I have repeatedly said, this is not about the man, it’s about his constitutional rights–and the rights of all,” said Van Hollen. “The administration will now have to make its case in the court of law, as it should have all along.”
According to the Department of Homeland Security, in April, Abrego Garcia was already found deportable by two judges, meaning he already had his day in court, making Van Hollen’s claim moot.
