The Salvadoran native, the Salvadoran native, Kilmar Abrego García, returns to the United States, where he will face criminal charges for supposedly transporting undocumented migrants within the United States, according to sources familiar with the matter.
More than two months after the Trump administration admitted that it deported by mistake Abrego García de Maryland to his native El Salvador, a federal grand jury accused him of supposedly transporting undocumented migrants within the United States, as ABC News has known.
An accusation of two positions, which was presented under a seal in a federal court in Tennessee last month, alleges that Abrego García, 29, participated in a conspiracy of years to take undocumented migrants from Texas inside the country, according to sources informed about the accusation.
The alleged conspiracy covered almost a decade and involved the domestic transport of thousands of non -citizens, including some children, from Mexico and Central America, according to Fuentes.
Among the allegedly transported were members of the MS-13 saving gang, sources familiar with the investigation said.
In a statement to ABC News, Abrego García’s lawyer said he will continue to fight to ensure that Abrego García receives a fair trial.
“From the beginning, this case has left a painfully clear thing: the government had the power to bring it back at any time. Instead, they chose to play with the court and with the life of a man,” said lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg. “We are not only fighting for Kilmar, we are struggling to ensure that the rights of due process are protected for everyone. Because tomorrow could be any of us, if we let the power not control, if we ignore our Constitution.”
The photo provided by Murray Osorio PLLC shows Kilmar Abrego García.
MURRAY OSORIO PLLC VIA AP
Abrego García, a Salvadoran native who had been living with his wife and children in Maryland, was deported in March to the mega prison of Cecot of El Salvador, despite a 2019 court order that prohibits deportation to that country due to fear of persecution, after the Trump administration said he was a member of the MS-13 gang of criminal. His wife and lawyers deny that he is a member of MS-13.
The movement of the Department of Justice to criminally process Abrego García represents the most aggressive step, but in the efforts of the administration to gather potentially incriminating information about the background of Abrego García, after the order of a federal judge who requires that the government facilitate its return to the United States so that due process is provided in deportation procedures.
Abrego García is back to the United States to face the positions after high -level diplomatic discussions between the Trump administration and the Government of El Salvador, sources familiar with the matter said.
The Trump administration has recognized in judicial presentations that Abrego García’s removal to El Salvador was in mistake, because he violated an order of the United States Immigration Court in 2019 that protected Abrego García from deportation to his native country, according to the registers of the Immigration Court. An immigration judge had determined that Abrego García would probably face persecution by local gangs that had allegedly terrified him already his family.
However, the administration has argued that Abrego García should not be returned to the United States because he is a member of the transnational saving gang MS-13, a claim that his family and lawyers have denied. In recent weeks, Trump administration officials have been publishing the interactions of Abrego García with the Police over the years, despite the lack of corresponding criminal charges.
In March, Abrego García’s family filed a demand for their deportation. The American district judge Paula Xinis in Maryland finally ordered the Trump administration to facilitate her return to the United States, the United States Supreme Court said that the April 10 ruling.
Initially, Abrego García was sent to the notorious prison of El Salvador, but it was believed that he was later transferred to a different installation in the country.
The criminal investigation that led to the charges was launched in April when the federal authorities began to analyze the circumstances of a 2022 traffic stop by Abrego García by the Tennessee road patrol, according to the sources. Abrego García was arrested for speeding in a vehicle with eight passengers and told the Police that they had been working on the construction in Missouri.
According to the images of the 2022 traffic stop body, Tennessee’s soldiers, after questioning Abrego García, discussed their suspicions that Abrego García could transport people for money because nine people were traveling without luggage, but Abrego García was not received or accused.
The officers finally allowed Abrego García to continue with only one warning about an expired driving license, according to a report on the stop published last month by the United States National Security Department.
As ABC News first reported last month, the Department of Justice had silently investigated the incident. As part of the investigation, the federal agents at the end of April visited a federal prison in Talladega, Alabama, to question José Ramon Hernández-Reyes, a convicted criminal who was the registered owner of the vehicle that Abrego García was driving when he stopped in the interest 40 East of Nashville, sources previously to ABC News. Hernández-Reyes was not present at the traffic stop.
Hernández-Reyes, 38, currently celebrates a 30-month sentence for re-entered the US again. UU. After a sentence for serious crime prior to the illegal transport of foreigners.
After receiving a limited immunity, Hernández-Reyes supposedly told researchers that a “taxi service” based in Baltimore was previously operated. He claimed to have met Abrego García around 2015 and said he had hired him on multiple occasions to transport undocumented migrants from Texas to several places in the United States, sources told ABC News.
When the details of the Tennessee traffic stop were advertised for the first time, Abrego García’s wife said that her husband sometimes transported groups of construction companions between work sites.
“Unfortunately, Kilmar is currently imprisoned without contact with the outside world, which means that he cannot respond to the statements,” said Jennifer Vásquez Sura in mid -April.
Abrego García entered the United States illegally when he was a teenager in 2012, according to judicial records. He has been living in Maryland during the last 13 years and married Vásquez Sura, an American citizen, in 2019. The couple has a son together.
Laura Romero of ABC News contributed to this report.
