Donald Trump Finally Brings Back Kilmar Abrego Garcia — to Indict Him

It’s been nearly two months since the Supreme Court ordered Donald Trump to bring back Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man whom his administration illegally deported to the notorious prison system in El Salvador.

On Friday, the Trump administration finally complied with this directive, returning Abrego Garcia to the United States. It did so while releasing a grand-jury indictment against him in Tennessee, dated May 21, charging him with “alien smuggling and conspiracy to commit alien smuggling.”

Abrego Garcia was among hundreds of immigrants whom the administration shipped to El Salvador without due process in March, in defiance of a court order. Unlike many of those immigrants, Abrego Garcia is originally from El Salvador. However, Abrego Garcia had previously been granted a “protection of removal” order specifically barring his deportation to El Salvador — which is why the Supreme Court found that his deportation was “illegal.” 

Prior to the announcement Friday, the administration had publicly refused to comply with the Supreme Court’s directive — as well as those of a Maryland district court and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Top Trump officials asserted the administration would never bring back Abrego Garcia, and could not if it wanted to, because they had placed him in the custody of a sovereign nation, El Salvador — even though the U.S. government is paying millions of dollars to house immigrant detainees. 

This posture has apparently changed, now that the U.S. is charging Abrego Garcia with actual crimes — though Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was among those who pledged that he would never come “back to our country,” kept up the ruse that Trump needed El Salvador’s permission to bring Abrego Garcia back to America. 

“We’re grateful to President [​​Nayib] Bukele for agreeing to return him to our country,” Bondi told reporters on Friday, adding: “This is what American justice looks like.”

ABC News reported Friday that Ben Schrader, a high-ranking prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee, resigned amid the decision to pursue the indictment against Abrego Garcia. Citing sources, the outlet wrote that “Schrader’s resignation was prompted by concerns that the case was being pursued for political reasons.”

According to the indictment, the grand jury alleges that Abrego Garcia: “(1) smuggled thousands of undocumented aliens throughout the United States; (2) is a member and associate of MS-13, a Foreign Terrorist Organization; (3) transported numerous MS-13 gang members into and throughout the United States from Central America; (4) used his status in MS-13 in furtherance of the alien smuggling conspiracy when it benefited him; (5) transported children throughout the United States in an unsafe manner to maximize profits; (6) abused undocumented alien females under his control while transporting them throughout the United States; and (7) trafficked firearms and narcotics from Texas to Maryland on multiple occasions.”

Bondi said that Abrego Garcia “will be prosecuted in our country, sentenced in our country — if convicted — and then returned [to El Salvador] after completion of his sentence.”

She spelled out some of the claims in the indictment. “It is alleged this defendant is part of the same smuggling ring responsible for the death of more than 50 migrants in 2021, after [a] tractor trailer overturned in Mexico — this is part of that same ring,” Bondi said, adding: “A co-conspirator alleged that the defendant solicited nude photographs and videos of a minor. A co-conspirator also alleges the defendant played a role in the murder of a rival gang member’s mother. These facts demonstrate Abrego Garcia is a danger to our community.”

Asked Friday whether the move to bring back Abrego Garcia should be seen as Trump’s administration complying with the Supreme Court’s ruling, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “There’s a big difference between what the state of play was before the indictment and after the indictment. And so the reason why he is back and was returned was because of the arrest warrant, which was presented to the government in El Salvador.” 

He added, “As far as whether it makes the ongoing litigation in Maryland moot, I would think so, but we don’t know. This just landed today.”

Shortly after Bondi’s press conference, Justice Department lawyers submitted a filing to the Maryland court notifying the judge that the administration has now complied with its order to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. 

“Considering this development, the court’s preliminary injunction should be dissolved, and the underlying case should be dismissed as moot,” the lawyers wrote. “Defendants intend to formally move to dismiss plaintiffs’ complaint on this basis.”