Kilmar Abrego Garcia Returns to USA and Faces Trafficking Charges in Court

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an immigrant from El Salvador who was illegally deported to the CECOT prison there without due process and against an immigration judge’s order, was brought back to the USA and brought to court to face new charges of transporting undocumented immigrants within the USA.

Federal officials have done all they could to avoid bringing him back despite orders from courts all the way up to the Supreme Court. This technically satisfies the court rulings while not freeing him.

In federal Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes’ court today, Abrego Garcia faced a two count indictment filed in Tennessee on 21 May 2025 under seal, which was unsealed today. Charges allege that he was part of a decade-long conspiracy, making more than 100 trips to transport undocumented immigrants from Texas deeper into the USA. No other conspirators were named.

Part of the government’s case is a 2022 traffic stop for speeding by Tennessee Highway Patrol. Abrego Garcia had eight passengers. He told police they were construction workers and that the trip began in Houston, Texas. He was not ticketed or charged. Although those details are in the police report, federal lawyers claim he lied to police and never told them the trip began in Texas.

If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison for each person allegedly transported and then deportation to El Salvador again, despite a 2019 order from an immigration judge that if he is ever deported he must not be sent there.

Government officials have been publicly throwing a number of other accusations at Abrego Garcia that have nothing to do with what is in the formal charges.

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