On Friday, the Salvadoran immigrant at the center of a dispute over President Donald Trump’s harsh deportation policy was brought back to the United States and taken into custody on suspicion of human smuggling.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was charged with trafficking unauthorized migrants after being returned to the United States from El Salvador.
“Abrego Garcia has landed in the United States to face justice,” Bondi said at a press conference.
The US Supreme Court had ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia after he was mistakenly deported in March to a notorious maximum security prison in El Salvador.
But Bondi insisted to reporters that his return to the United States resulted from an arrest warrant presented to Salvadoran authorities.
“We’re grateful to (Salvadoran) President (Nayib) Bukele for agreeing to return him to our country to face these very serious charges,” she said.
In a post on X, Bukele said “we work with the Trump administration, and if they request the return of a gang member to face charges, of course we wouldn’t refuse.”
Trump, in remarks to reporters Friday, described Abrego Garcia as a “pretty bad guy” and said he “should’ve never had to be returned.”
White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson said Abrego Garcia’s return “has nothing to do with his original deportation.”
“There was no mistake,” Jackson said on X. “He’s returning because a new investigation has revealed crimes SO HEINOUS, committed in the US, that only the American Justice System could hold him fully accountable.”
Trump’s assault on undocumented immigration included sending more than 200 people to a prison in El Salvador, including 29-year-old Abrego Garcia, who was residing in the eastern state of Maryland.
Alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration has designated a foreign terrorist organization, made up the majority of the migrants who were summarily deported.
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