Wrongfully Deported Salvadoran Returns to U.S. to Face Smuggling Charges

Kilmar Ábrego García, a 29-year-old Salvadoran who is lawfully present and has a U.S.-citizen spouse and son in Maryland, was deported to El Salvador on March 15, 2025, mistakenly, despite a 2019 court injunction against his removal due to likely persecution by gangs. On June 6, after a federal warrant had been issued, Salvadoran authorities extradited him to U.S. agents, and he was returned to face charges of smuggling illegal migrants, firearms and drug trafficking.

In Nashville federal court, Ábrego García was indicted by a grand jury on people-smuggling and conspiracy charges. Prosecutors say that he made over 100 round-trips between Maryland and Texas between 2016 and 2025 as part of a ring that smuggled migrants from the U.S.–Mexico border to their final destinations. If found guilty, he could be sentenced to decades in prison and eventual deportation back to El Salvador. His plea is on June 13, and he is being held in federal custody.

Ábrego García's lawyer denounces the prosecution as "fantastical," arguing that the government's conduct corrects its own error by prosecuting only after deporting. His case has become emblematic of controversy regarding due process and coercive immigration enforcement, driven by a U.S. Supreme Court directive sending him back and being watched by the judge who initially granted him refuge.