WASHINGTON — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man at the center of a political and legal maelstrom after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, was flown back to the United States on Friday to face charges of having transported migrants living in the country illegally.
The stunning move by the Trump administration, after months of fighting any effort to return him, could end the most high-profile court battle over President Donald Trump’s authority to rapidly seize and deport immigrants.
The decision to pull Abrego Garcia out of El Salvador and instead put him on trial in an American courtroom could provide an off-ramp for the Trump administration, which had bitterly opposed court orders requiring the government to take steps to return him after his wrongful removal March 15.
The 10-page indictment — filed in U.S. District Court in Nashville, Tennessee, in May and unsealed Friday — might also be an effort to save face: Bringing Abrego Garcia back to face criminal charges may allow the White House to avoid a broader legal confrontation that was increasingly headed toward questions of whether Trump administration officials should be held in contempt of court.
“Abrego Garcia has landed in the United States to face justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said at a news conference in Washington. “He was a smuggler of humans and children and women.”
Two people familiar with the investigation said it made a significant leap forward when an imprisoned man recently came forward offering information about Abrego Garcia, but there was concern and disagreement among prosecutors about how to proceed. In recent weeks, a supervisor in the federal prosecutor’s office in Nashville resigned over how the case was handled, these people said.
Bondi went on to level accusations against Abrego Garcia that were not included in the indictment, claiming that co-conspirators told investigators he had helped smuggle “minor children” and gang members during dozens of trips around the country. She linked him to more serious crimes, including murders and the abuse of women.
She also claimed, without providing evidence, that his seemingly law-abiding life in Maryland as a contractor, father and husband was a cover for a criminal activities spanning nine years. Bondi predicted that he would be convicted and returned to El Salvador for imprisonment.
Abrego Garcia appeared in federal court in Nashville later Friday, and the government moved to hold him in custody.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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