(Washington) A Salvadoran immigrant expelled “mistaken”, but that the Trump administration said he was unable to bring back, was renewed on Friday from Salvador to the United States, where he is now charged for trafficking in migrants, the general prosecutor, Pam Bondi.
The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, resident of Maryland married to an American, crystallizes for almost three months the opposition between federal justice, including the Supreme Court, and the executive, accused of obstruction vis-à-vis the courts which contradict her policy of mass expulsion.
He is one of the more than 250 men expelled on March 15 to Salvador, most of them for alleged belonging to the Venezuelan gang Tren in Aragua, declared organization “terrorist” by Washington. They were incarcerated in a high security prison known for the harshness of its conditions.
Photo Marvin Recinos, Agency France-Presse
The Santa Ana penitentiary agro-industrial complex, where the Salvadoran Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia would have been incarcerated after his expulsion “by mistake” by the Trump government, in Salvador
The Trump administration then recognized as a “administrative error” concerning Kilmar Abrego Garcia, since an expulsion order towards Salvador against him had been definitively canceled in 2019.
She also accuses him, despite the absence of a criminal record, of belonging to the Salvadoral Gang MS-13, also classified “terrorist” by the United States in February.
Photo Seth Herald, Reuters
Fred D. Thompson Federal Building, which houses the United States District Court for the Tennessee district, where Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was expelled from Maryland to Salvador, faces criminal accusations in Nashville, Tennessee
“Abrego Garcia landed in the United States to face justice,” said the general prosecutor, reporting on her charge by a large Tennessee jury in May, made public on Friday, for migrant traffic since 2016.
Mme Bondi thanked the president of Salvador, Nayib Bukele.
“Our government has submitted an arrest warrant to the Salvador and they agreed to send it back to our country,” she added.
If he is found guilty, Kilmar Abrego Garcia will serve his sentence in the United States before being expelled to Salvador, the general prosecutor said.
During a meeting at the White House in April, President Donald Trump and his Salvadoan counterpart had nevertheless declared themselves unable to remedy this situation.
Photo Jose Cabezas, Reuters
Salvador International Airport in San Luis Talpa, from where Kilmar Abrego Garcia was sent back to the United States after being expelled from Maryland by the Trump administration
Mr. Bukele assured on Friday on X that he had not changed position. “But we are working with the Trump administration, and if they ask for the return of a gang member to cope with justice, of course, we are not going to refuse,” he said.
“More than one man”
The White House, after having sworn for months that Kilmar Abrego Garcia would never set foot in the United States again, argued on Friday that his return had nothing to do with his expulsion, denying that he was causing an “error”.
“The government made Miles disappear in a foreign prison in violation of a court decision. Now, after months of delay and secret, he brings him back not to correct his error, but to prosecute him criminally, “deplored at a press conference one of his lawyers, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg.
Photo Marvin Recinos, Agency France-Presse
Aerial view of the Penitentiary Agro-Industrial Complex of Santa Ana, Salvador
“He will vigorously defend himself from the charges against him,” said the lawyer, saying that he wanted to meet his client “as soon as possible”.
“This file concerns more than one man,” said Ama Frimpong, legal director of the Casa immigrant defense organization.
It is a question of knowing if the government can make us disappear and silence us, we people, brave justice decisions and use secret processes so as not to have to account.
Ama Frimpong, legal director of the Casa immigrants defense organization
“For months, the Trump administration flouted the authority of the Supreme Court and our Constitution,” reacted in a statement the Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen, who had briefly met Kilmar Abrego Garcia in April in Salvador.
“Today, it seems that she finally went to our requirements to respect court decisions and the rights to defend herself granted to anyone in the United States,” he said.
Donald Trump erected the fight against illegal immigration in absolute priority, evoking an “invasion” of the United States by “criminals from abroad” and communicating abundantly on the expulsions of immigrants.
But his massive expulsion program was thwarted or slowed down by multiple court decisions, in particular on the grounds that the people targeted should be able to assert their rights.
