Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland sheet metal worker, returned to the U.S. June 6, after being detained in March by federal immigration agents in Prince George’s County. He had been held in prison in El Salvador since March 15.
Also on June 6, Abrego Garcia appeared in a Tennessee court to face charges of human smuggling, the first time he has been charged with a crime. He is being detained in Tennessee pending a bond hearing scheduled June 13.
Federal agents sent Abrego Garcia to an El Salvadoran prison in error. On April 10, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return.
Abrego Garcia entered the U.S. at age 16 in 2011. In 2019, police detained Abrego Garcia for questioning because he was standing near a known MS-13 gang member outside the Hyattsville Home Depot, and there was an active investigation of an MS-13-related murder in the area. Following transfer to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, Abrego Garcia was released six months later with no criminal charges filed, when a judge determined that Abrego Garcia would face persecution from gangs if he returned to El Salvador. He was permitted to work in the U.S.
The Trump administration, over the past few months, has publicized records of interactions that Abrego Garcia had with law enforcement that did not result in criminal charges. These include video of a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee, in which Abrego Garcia was driving a van full of male passengers and told police that he was transporting them from a construction site.