A man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration is returning to the US to face criminal charges.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was charged in an indictment filed in federal court in Tennessee with conspiring to transport illegal immigrants into the US, Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Friday.
The indictment was filed on 21 May, more than two months after he was deported from the US, court records have shown.
In a statement, Abrego Garcia’s lawyer Andrew Rossman said: “Today’s action proves what we’ve known all along – that the administration had the ability to bring him back and just refused to do so.”
Abrego Garcia was deported from Maryland despite an immigration judge’s 2019 order granting him protection after finding he was likely to be persecuted by gangs if he was returned there.
On Friday, US Attorney General Pam Bondi outlined the charges at a news conference: “The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring.
“He made over 100 trips the grand jury found – smuggling people throughout our country… MS-13 [international criminal gang] members, violent gang terrorist organisation members… throughout our country.
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“He will be prosecuted in our country, sentenced in our country if convicted and then returned after completion of his sentence.”
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