The Trump administration ended the legal standoff over a Maryland man it concedes it mistakenly deported and had imprisoned in El Salvador by bringing him back to the US to face criminal charges. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday that Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been indicted on two human smuggling counts: conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal aliens for financial gain, and unlawful transportation of illegal aliens for financial gain, CNN reports. The indictment was returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Tennessee in May and unsealed Friday. The Supreme Court, as well as a lower court judge, had told the administration to act to return Abrego Garcia to the US.
"The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring," Bondi said, per ABC News. "He was a smuggler of humans and children and women. He made over 100 trips, the grand jury found, smuggling people throughout our country," she added. Conviction could result in a sentence of up to 10 years in prison for each migrant prosecutors prove he smuggled into the US, per the Washington Post. It could also mean deportation to El Salvador or another country.
The case against Abrego Garcia stems from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee by Highway Patrol officers. A report released by the Department of Homeland Security in April says that none of the people in the vehicle had luggage and that they listed the same address as Abrego Garcia, per the AP. Bondi did not say when the federal investigation of Abrego García began or what findings led to the case being presented to a grand jury, per the Post. (More Kilmar Abrego Garcia stories.)
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