Washington, (EFE).- Kilmar Ábrego, a Salvadoran migrant who was deported due to an istrative error by the United States government, reportedly returned to the US on Friday to face alleged human trafficking charges.
On Friday, US Attorney General Pamela Bondi announced that Ábrego would be returned to El Salvador to face the charges.
In a press conference, the head of the Justice Department confirmed, “Ábrego García has landed in the United States to face justice,” after being indicted by a grand jury in Tennessee for migrant or alien smuggling and conspiracy to smuggle persons.
Bondi said that for his return, the Trump istration had submitted an arrest warrant to the Salvadoran government.
“We’re grateful to President Bukele for agreeing to return him to our country to face these very serious charges,” she added.
The prosecutor claimed that over the past nine years, Ábrego Garcia had played a significant role in a human trafficking network and had a full-time job smuggling thousands of migrants into the US.
In a court document filed under seal in a Tennessee court on May 21 but now made public, Ábrego “conspired to bring undocumented aliens to the US.”
According to the authorities, Ábrego “and co-conspirators from El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, the US and elsewhere communicated with each other” after crossing the border into Maryland and other US states.
Prosecutors alleged that the network had links to the Salvadoran gang “La Mara Salvatrucha, otherwise known and hereinafter referred to as MS-13.”
The indictment also accuses him of “firearms trafficking,” involving the illegal purchase of firearms in Texas for resale in Maryland, as well as “narcotics trafficking.”
The two charges filed against him, that have yet to be proven in court, carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison each.
Abrego had legal status in the US that protected him from deportation when he was detained by migration authorities and subsequently deported to CECOT in El Salvador in March.
Lawyers claim ‘abuse of power’
On Friday, lawyers for Kilmar Ábrego accused the US government of committing an “abuse of power” and rejected the charges brought against their client by the prosecutor’s office.
The case has plunged the government into a battle with the judiciary, with experts calling it a “constitutional crisis,” after the authorities refused to return Ábrego to the US despite orders issued by the Supreme Court and lower courts.
At a press conference, lawyers who have defended Ábrego during this period called these accusations “unfounded.”
They also criticized the Trump istration for failing to “facilitate” Ábrego’s return, as ordered by the Supreme Court in April.
“Now, after months of delay and secrecy, they’re bringing him back, not to correct their error but to prosecute him. This shows that they were playing games with the court all along,” said lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg Friday to NPR. “Due process means the chance to defend yourself before you’re punished, not after. This is an abuse of power, not justice.”
Deportations from the US to high-security prison in El Salvador
Ábrego is one of more than 230 migrants (mostly Venezuelans) expelled from the US on Mar. 16 and sent to the high-security prison Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador without the possibility of appealing their cases in court. Human rights groups have labeled this an “enforced disappearance.”
The Trump istration has defended the deportations by accusing the migrants of having ties to the Tren de Aragua transnational criminal gang, which emerged from a Venezuelan prison, and the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang. Both groups have recently been labeled terrorist organizations by Washington.
However, multiple investigations by US media outlets have revealed that most of the migrants deported to El Salvador have no criminal record.
Ábrego, who was arrested by migration authorities at a traffic stop, had legal status in the US that protected him from deportation, and he is married to a US citizen.
According to court documents filed by his defense, Ábrego was living in the state of Maryland after fleeing El Salvador due to the extortion and threats that he and his family had received from the Mara Barrio 18 gang.
His case gained recognition among opponents of the Trump istration and human rights groups, serving as an example of the Republican istration’s alleged mistreatment of migrants during its mass deportation campaign.
In response, the US Government launched a media campaign to link him to the MS-13 gang, despite him not having been accused of any crime in the US up until now. EFE
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