Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a citizen of El Salvador whose controversial deportation in March ignited a national debate, pleaded not guilty to human smuggling charges during an arraignment in federal court in Tennessee on Friday.
His return to the U.S. last week by the Trump administration, following intense public pressure, has been met with immediate new criminal charges and a renewed legal battle.
Abrego Garcia’s case has become a significant focal point for those opposing President Donald Trump’s stringent mass deportation policies. He had been living legally in the United States for over a decade before his “wrongful deportation” in March, which his legal team argues violated a 2019 immigration judge’s order protecting him from removal due to a credible threat of gang persecution in El Salvador.
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While the Trump administration initially labeled his deportation an “administrative error,” officials have persistently attempted to justify it by alleging Abrego Garcia’s ties to the notorious MS-13 gang. His wife and attorneys vehemently deny these accusations, asserting he is a law-abiding construction worker and family man.
Despite the lack of direct charges for gang affiliation, drug trafficking, firearm trafficking, or abuse, federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee have sought to keep Abrego Garcia detained, portraying him as a dangerous member of MS-13, a flight risk, and a threat to the community.
They have also included uncharged accusations of drug and firearm trafficking and abusing women he allegedly transported in their request to keep him jailed.
READ: Border Czar Tom Homan Reminds Democrats That MS-13 Gangs Hurt Immigrant Communities The Most
The current charges against Abrego Garcia are solely for transporting individuals who were in the country illegally. Prosecutors accuse him of transporting hundreds of people over many years, with each instance carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years, potentially leading to a lengthy prison term if convicted. The charges reportedly stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee where Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with eight passengers. His lawyers have dismissed these allegations as “preposterous.”
Before the hearing commenced in Nashville, Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, addressed a crowd gathered outside a church. Her voice thick with emotion, she stated that Thursday marked three months since the Trump administration “abducted and disappeared my husband and separated him from our family.”
READ: Trump Defends Stance On Kilmar Abrego Garcia Case Amid Supreme Court Order
Vasquez Sura shared that she saw her husband for the first time on Thursday since his deportation, conveying a message of faith and resilience from him. “Kilmar wants you to have faith,” she recounted, quoting her husband as asking his supporters “to continue fighting, and I will be victorious because God is with us.”
Abrego Garcia’s legal team is vigorously opposing his continued detention, emphasizing that he was already wrongly held in a Salvadoran prison due to government error. They argue that due process and “basic fairness” necessitate his release.
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