Kilmar Ábrego García returned to the United States to face charges for allegedly transporting immigrants into the country

Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to the United States for prosecution. Garcia, an illegal immigrant who was deported to El Salvador and accused by the Department of State of being a member of Mara Salvatrucha (M-13), will face federal charges for transporting immigrants into the country without legal authorization. This was confirmed to The Hill by one of his lawyers.

Nearly three months after being wrongfully deported by the Trump administration, Garcia is back to be charged for an incident that took place in 2022, when he was driving in Tennessee. At the center of the accusation is that he allegedly transported undocumented migrants from Texas into the interior of the country.

At the time, local authorities stopped him for speeding and noticed that he was traveling in his car with eight people with no luggage. They even gave Abrego Garcia's address. According to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report, the officers were suspicious of the situation but allowed him to continue. They only issued him a warning for his expired license, so he was never charged.

According to what sources in the investigation told ABC News, authorities suspect that M-13 members were in that car.

"From the beginning, this case has made one thing painfully clear: The government had the power to bring him back at any time. Instead, they chose to play games with the court and with a man's life," Garcia's lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, told the media outlet.

"We're not just fighting for Kilmar -- we're fighting to ensure due process rights are protected for everyone. Because tomorrow, this could be any one of us -- if we let power go unchecked, if we ignore our Constitution," he added.

As for Garcia's story, he entered the United States illegally in 2011. Although he received a deportation order eight years later, U.S. authorities determined that the 29-year-old could not be deported to his home country for fear of persecution.

However, he was deported to El Salvador in March of this year and sent to the maximum-security prison known as CECOT. Subsequently, the Department of Justice acknowledged that this action was the product of an "administrative error," and the U.S. Supreme Court ordered President Donald Trump's administration to "facilitate" his return to the country.

“Abrego Garcia has landed in the United States to face justice”

Pam Bondi, Attorney General, gave a press conference to explain Garcia's next steps in the United States as he faces authorities.

Bondi thanked Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele for agreeing to return García to the United States. As he specified, he will be prosecuted for conspiracy to commit alien smuggling under Title 8 U.S. Code 1324.

“The grand jury found that over the past nine years de Rego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring. They found that this was his full-time job, not a contractor. He was a smuggler of human beings, children and women. He made over a hundred trips, the grand jury found, smuggling people throughout our country. Members of the MS-13, a violent terrorist organization across the country,” he added.