Kilmar Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty to human smuggling charges one week after Donald Trump’s administration returned him to the United States to face a federal grand jury indictment.
Three months after he was arrested and deported to a brutal Salvadoran prison, the 29-year-old Salvadoran father appeared in a red jumpsuit in a Nashville courtroom.
Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes also will hear arguments on Friday over whether to keep Abrego Garcia detained while awaiting trial.
Federal judges and a unanimous Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” his return after government lawyers admitted he was removed from the country due to an “administrative error.” But the government spent weeks battling court orders while officials publicly said he would never step foot in the United States.
Officials abruptly returned him to the country last week following a federal grand jury indictment accusing him of illegally transporting immigrants across the country.
A decision to pursue a case against Abrego Garcia reportedly led to the abrupt departure of top prosecutor Ben Schrader, who feared the charges were politically motivated.
The two-count indictment filed in Tennessee last month and unsealed last week accuses Abrego Garcia of participating in a years-long conspiracy to illegally move undocumented immigrants from Texas. He faces one count of conspiracy to transport aliens and one count of unlawful transportation of undocumented aliens.
Federal prosecutors claim he is a member of transnational gang MS-13 and “personally participated in violent crime, including murder.” Prosecutors also claim he “abused” women and trafficked children, firearms and narcotics. There is also an ongoing investigation into “solicitation of child pornography,” though no charges have been filed, prosecutors said.
His wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura saw him for the first time in three months on Thursday — through a video screen while he remains in detention.
“To all the families still fighting to be reunited, after family separation, or if you too are in detention, Kilmar wants you to have faith,” she told a crowd outside a federal courthouse in Nashville on Friday.
She also relayed messages from her husband to supporters.
“He said, ‘these dark times we’re facing, all the tribulations God has put in our path, but keep praying and keep fighting. The light will come soon for all of us. And you too will be able to see your family again,’” Sura said.
“To everyone who continues to support Kilmar and the fight for justice, Kilmar says: ‘Thank you from the bottom of my heart. God has put us in this path together for a reason,’” she added.
“Kilmar shares that he feels God’s presence with him. Only God knows the darkness he has faced these past three months. And Kilmar closed by saying, ‘God is also within all of us as you keep fighting for freedom for us, and I will soon see you.’”
Abrego Garcia fled gang threats in El Salvador and illegally entered the United States when he was 16 years old.
He has been working as a sheet-metal apprentice in Maryland, where he has been living with his wife and 5-year-old child, both U.S. citizens. The couple is also raising two other children from a previous relationship.
In 2019, an immigration judge blocked Abrego Garcia’s removal from the United States after his credible testimony that he fears violence and death in his home country.
But after a traffic stop in March, he was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and then deported to El Salvador’s brutal Terrorism Confinement Center. Abrego Garcia was later moved to another prison explicitly for non-gang members. He was imprisoned in the country for nearly three months.
This is a developing story
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