Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man who was wrongfully deported from the United States, has pleaded not guilty to human smuggling charges in a federal court in Nashville, Tennessee.Friday marked the first opportunity for Abrego Garcia, a Maryland construction worker, to confront the criminal charges the administration of President Donald Trump has levelled against him.
The Trump administration has sought to portray Abrego Garcia as a member of the MS-13 criminal gang following his deportation to El Salvador on March 15.
Abrego Garcia had been protected from deportation under a 2019 protection order, given his fear of gang violence if he returned to El Salvador. His removal to that country sparked public outrage and questions about the legality of Trump’s “mass deportation” campaign.
In the months since, the Trump administration has faced increasing pressure to return Abrego Garcia to the US, with the Supreme Court in April affirming that the government needed to “facilitate” his release. Advertisement
A lower court, led by US District Judge Paula Xinis, had signalled that it was considering whether to hold the Trump administration in contempt of court for not complying with orders to secure his return.
That abruptly changed, however, on June 6, when Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Abrego Garcia was on his way back to the US to face charges that he helped smuggle undocumented migrants in the US.
In a 10-page indictment, the Trump administration accused Abrego Garcia of leading “more than 100 trips between Texas to Maryland and other states”, starting in 2016.
It cites as evidence a traffic stop in Tennessee around November 30, 2022, when …
