Man mistakenly deported to El Salvador is back in US to face charges

Simon Sandoval Moshenburg says he and the rest of Ábrego García’s legal team learnt of the new charges against their client and his return to the US “just like everyone else” – on ABC News.

He says he understands there will be a hearing this afternoon and a longer hearing at a later date.

Mosheburg now tells those listening that lawyers have not had any updates regarding Ábrego García’s physical and mental wellbeing – but that the latest report was that he was in good health.

A little earlier, lawyers said “bad treatment” he suffered while in jail in El Salvador will now come to light.

Moshenberg says Ábrego García’s return will reveal details about his treatment in El Salvador.

He says he is confident Ábrego García will not be convicted, but even if he is, a judge’s order still prevents him from being returned to El Salvador.

Moshenberg continues that Ábrego García is one of the first people to leave Cecot, the notorious prison in El Salvador where he was being held.

The revelations will “strengthen his case that he can’t be sent back to that prison where he will be tortured,” he says.

“It’s going to be very interesting to hear how the Trump administration can justify sending people to that prison once Kilmar call tell people about the experiences that he suffered there.”

We’re now hearing from Chris Newman, one of the family’s lawyers.

He says the Trump administration has lodged a case in the court of public opinion, presenting “no evidence” of allegations against him, and that he is concerned Ábrego García may not get a fair trial.

He adds that he is particularly concerned his constitutional rights are not being respected.

Newman goes on to say the White House is treating Ábrego García “the same way” it treats “all non-white immigrants – as if guilty until proven innocent”.

Next up is Ama Frimpong, another of Ábrego García’s lawyers, who says he needs to have contact with his family.

For three months his wife and children have been wondering when their loved one will come home, she says.

She adds that the government is still “delaying reunification”, still “play[ing] games”.

“Let him talk to his wife and children,” she continues, adding that the family has “suffered enough”.

Kilmar Ábrego García’s lawyers are now responding to his return to the US to face criminal charges.

Simon Sandoval Moshenberg starts first, calling the events an “abuse of power” and the “exact opposite” of due process. He says Ábrego García should have been allowed due process before he was punished and sent abroad.

This matter could have “gone away” had the Trump administration admitted it made a mistake in deporting Ábrego García in the first place, he says.

He calls the charges “preposterous”.

He says Ábrego García will vigorously defend himself.

“Today’s action proves what we’ve known all along – that the administration had the ability to bring him back and just refused to do so,” Ábrego García’s lawyer Andrew Rossman has said in a statement according to the Reuters news agency.

His attorneys are planning a news conference that is set to begin in a moment.

His lawyers have previously argued that he has never been convicted of any criminal offence, including gang membership, in the US or in El Salvador.

His wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, has also denied he is a MS-13 gang member and described him as “a loving partner and father”.

Although since he was deported it came to light that Sura had filed a protective order petition against him in 2021, alleging that he had physically attacked her on multiple occasions. She said in a later statement that she had decided not to follow through with the court process at the time.

President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele has written on X following the news about Garcia’s return.

He says:

As I said in the Oval Office: 1. I would never smuggle a terrorist into the United States. 2. ⁠I would never release a gang member onto the streets of El Salvador. That said, we work with the Trump administration, and if they request the return of a gang member to face charges, of course we wouldn’t refuse. No more margaritas under custody

Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador

The mention of margaritas is a nod to when Democratic Sen Van Hollen visited Ábrego García in the country. The senator said members of El Salvador’s government facilitated the visit and he accused them of setting up some type of tropical drink in front of them during the visit. The senator said neither he or Ábrego García ordered or drank them.

Senator Chris Van Hollen – who visited Kilmar Ábrego García in El Salvador in April – has released a statement now that he has returned.

“For months the Trump Administration flouted the Supreme Court and our Constitution. Today, they appear to have finally relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and with the due process rights afforded to everyone in the United States,” he says.

The Maryland senator continues: “As I have repeatedly said, this is not about the man, it’s about his constitutional rights – and the rights of all.”

“The administration will now have to make its case in the court of law, as it should have all along.”

The White House press secretary has just released a statement about the indictment against Ábrego García. She says the charges prove “the unhinged Democrat Party was wrong, and their stenographers in the Fake News Media were once again played like fools”.

In a statement on X, Karoline Leavitt calls him an “illegal alien terrorist, gang member, and human trafficker”.

She says he will now return to the US to “meet the full force of American justice”.

In the past few hours, news of the return of Maryland man Kilmar Ábrego García – who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador – began circulating.

Since then, Attorney General Pam Bondi has given an update. She says:

• Kilmar Ábrego Garcia has “landed in the United States to face justice”
• He will be charged with “alien smuggling and conspiracy to commit alien smuggling” after a grand jury indictment
• After Ábrego García serves his sentence in the US – if convicted of any crimes – he will then return to El Salvador, which was agreed with El Salvador’s president
• Bondi says the grand jury found that Ábrego García had played a “significant role” in an alien smuggling ring
• “These facts demonstrate Ábrego García is a danger to our community,” she says, after claiming – without evidence – that co-conspirators allege he was involved in a murder

Bondi says that Ábrego García’s charges deal with allegations of smuggling, but links his actions to those of MS-13 – an international criminal gang she says the Trump administration is fighting against.

She says the US government learned through the recent arrest of an MS-13 member in Virginia (unrelated to Abrego Garcia’s case) that they “bring young children” into the United States and groom them to commit “violent crimes throughout our country”.

[MS-13] is highly organised, it is very dangerous, and they are living throughout our country – but no more, because they are being arrested, they are being prosecuted and being convicted and deported when appropriate.

Pam Bondi, US Attorney General

Bondi is asked whether Garcia’s return is linked to different courts ordering the administration help facilitate Garcia getting back to the US.

Todd Blanche, a former lawyer to Trump and now deputy attorney general, takes this one.

He says there is a “big difference between the state of play before and after the indictment”.

Garcia was returned because there was an arrest warrant presented to the government in El Salvador, Blanche tells the news conference.

“So there’s a big difference there,” Blanche says.

For context: Judges all the way up to the US Supreme Court have ruled that Mr Abrego Garcia was deported in error and that the US government should help facilitate his return to his home in Maryland. You can read more about the case here.

A grand jury in Tennessee indicted Abrego Garcia on May 21, Bondi continues, and says “this investigation has been ongoing”.

The indictment decision came months after Ábrego García was deported in March.

Todd Blanche, Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer who is now with the Department of Justice, steps in to answer a question about Abrego Garcia’s deportation and now return. He explains Abrego Garcia was brought back to the US because there is now an arrest warrant for him.

Bondi says that Ábrego García will be prosecuted in the US. If convicted, he will serve his sentence in the US and then be returned to El Salvador.

Bondi goes on to claim that Ábrego García trafficked weapons and narcotics into the US.

She adds that a co-conspirator alleges he was involved in the murder of a rival gang member’s mother. She does not provide evidence of these claims and he is not facing charges related to that allegation.

“These facts demonstrate Ábrego García is a danger to our community,” she says.

Bondi continues to say that the grand jury found that Ábrego García had played a “significant role” in an alien smuggling ring.

She says they found it was his “full time job” and alleges that he had made more than 100 trips smuggling people throughout the country – bringing in thousands of illegal immigrants to the US, Bondi says.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi thanks the President of El Salvador for helping return Ábrego García to the US.

She then says after Ábrego García serves his sentence in the US – if convicted of any crimes – he will then return to El Salvador.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia has “landed in the United States to face justice”, US Attorney General Pam Bondi says, beginning a news conference.

He will be charged with “alien smuggling and conspiracy to commit alien smuggling” after a grand jury indictment, she says.

Ábrego García, 29, came to the US from El Salvador illegally around 2011.

In 2019, he was arrested with three other men in the US state of Maryland and detained by federal immigration authorities.

A judge granted him protection from deportation on the grounds that he might be at risk of persecution from gangs in his home country.

Ábrego García was living with his wife and child under this protected legal status in Maryland until he was deported on 15 March this year to El Salvador’s notorious Cecot prison, in what the Trump administration admitted was an “administrative error”.

At the same time, the US government alleges he is a “verified” member of the violent El Salvador gang MS-13 – claims that his lawyer denies.

Kilmar Ábrego García – a 29-year-old from El Salvador who was deported from the US in March – is on his way back to the US, media reports.

He is reportedly going to face criminal changes when he returns.

Ábrego García faced a legal battle in the courts, which ultimately reached the US Supreme Court, over whether the US government should help “facilitate” his return to his home in Maryland.

The White House, which accused him of being a member of the transnational Salvadorian gang MS-13, a designated foreign terrorist organisation has not yet confirmed his return.

Stay with us as we bring you the latest.