The Trump administration retrieved the man it had wrongly deported to El Salvador, Kilmar Abrego Garcia. His return to the U.S. could end the administration’s most prominent court battle over its deportations.
As part of the return, federal prosecutors charged Abrego Garcia with transporting undocumented immigrants. “Abrego Garcia has landed in the United States to face justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said.
For two months, Democrats have agitated on behalf of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant, alleged gang member, and suspected human trafficker whom the Trump administration deported to El Salvador. Picked up by police in Maryland in 2019, Abrego Garcia was given a deportation order on the basis of his unlawful presence in the United States and gang activity. But the immigration judge specifically ordered that Abrego Garcia not be deported to his home country of El Salvador, where Abrego Garcia claimed he would be in danger.
As it turned out, Abrego Garcia never went anywhere until March of this year, when he was arrested as part of the new Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigrants who have received deportation orders. But as everyone knows, U.S. authorities deported Abrego Garcia to El Salvador — precisely where the judge had said he should not be sent.
The Trump administration admitted it made a mistake but also maintained that once Abrego Garcia was in prison in El Salvador, the U.S. had little power to bring him back. By then, many Democrats had turned Abrego Garcia into an anti-Trump cause. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) visited Abrego Garcia in El Salvador and said he passed on a “message of love” from Abrego Garcia’s wife to Kilmar. Van Hollen assured reporters that all the efforts to bring Abrego Garcia home, plus his family’s love, gave Abrego Garcia “the strength to persevere.” For many Democrats, activists, and their allies in the media, it was a touching story.
