Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Friday that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, one of the hundreds of migrants summarily transported to a notorious prison in his native El Salvador, has been returned to the United States to face federal human trafficking charges. Bondi explained that the indictment alleges Abrego Garcia participated in a criminal conspiracy as a member of the street gang MS-13 in which “thousands of illegal aliens were smuggled.”
The ten-page indictment from May 21st, which was unsealed on Friday, outlines the case against Abrego Garcia, charging him with one count of conspiracy to transport aliens and one count of unlawful transportation of undocumented aliens. The document alleges that Abrego Garcia made hundreds of trips, coordinating with a network of MS-13 members to “maximize efficiency and profits” of the operation. Pam Bondi told reporters in a June 6 press conference that “this was his full time job, not a contractor.”
Abrego Garcia’s return comes weeks after the Trump administration admitted in court that he had been deported by mistake. A case regarding his summary deportation and imprisonment made it to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the Trump administration had to “facilitate” his return, an order which the Trump administration claimed it had no power to enforce. Some legal scholars have said that the situation amounts to a constitutional crisis, with the leadership of the executive branch possibly defying the authority of the co-equal judicial branch. At the time when he was taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Abrego Garcia had been living in Maryland with his wife and children, all of whom are American citizens, and had been complying with annual check-ins with the federal agency.
El Salvadorean President Naib Bukele called the idea of returning Abrego Garcia “preposterous” in April when he visited the White House, telling a reporter that his question on the matter amounted to asking him if he would “smuggle a terrorist.” On Friday, Bukele wrote in a post on X: “we work with the Trump administration, and if they request the return of a gang member to face charges, of course we wouldn’t refuse.”
