Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been the celebrity for the illegal immigrant cause of the Democrat Party. The Trump administration has contended that the El Salvadorian national is a member of the notorious MS-13 gang.
Garcia’s family filed a lawsuit in Maryland against the Trump administration after Garcia was illegal deported. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered Garcia’s return to the U.S, which the government complied with three months later.
A hearing occurred on Monday, in which the Trump administration pushed for the civil case to be dismissed. Justice Department officials told Xinis that they intended to begin removal proceedings to a third country as early as this month.
But, at the same time, federal prosecutors are mounting a human smuggling case against Garcia stemming from a traffic stop in Tennessee.
When Garcia returned to the states, he was taken into custody in Tennessee for charges dating back to 2016 for smuggling illegal aliens from Texas to Maryland and other states. Suspected of human trafficking, he was pulled over in 2022 for traffic violations in Tennessee. Eight other passengers were in the car, but Garcia was not charged with anything.
Xinis has questioned how officials could pursue immediate deportation while simultaneously mounting a federal criminal case against Abrego Garcia. She rejected the Trump administration’s motions to dismiss the case and has called for a witness on to explain the government’s next steps once Garcia enters ICE custody.
Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, believes that Garcia should be tried for those crimes in the U.S. and, if convicted, should serve time in the U.S., after which he can be deported.
“So as long as he is not just set loose. If the judicial system has reason to want to hold him accountable for things he has done here, the penalty for committing other crimes here in the United States shouldn't just be a plane ticket back to your home country. Like anybody else, you should serve time here and then be removed from the country,” states Mehlman.
