XPost: alt.politics.immigration, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns XPost: sac.politics, alt.society.liberalism
Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s sudden return to the United States on Friday to
face federal charges of smuggling migrants across the country was a
messaging triumph for the Trump administration.
The news deflected public attention from a series of unanimous court
rulings — including a Supreme Court decision — that President Donald Trump
did not have the power to unilaterally detain and deport individuals to
foreign prisons without a review by a judge.
And the allegations against Abrego Garcia are damning. A federal grand
jury found that the 29-year-old was an MS-13 member who transported
thousands of undocumented immigrants, including children, from Texas to
states across the country for profit for nine years. He allegedly also transported firearms and drugs, abused female migrants and was linked to
an incident in Mexico where a tractor-trailer overturned and killed 50 migrants.
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, a lawyer representing Abrego Garcia, said
Saturday that he planned to meet his client for the first time on Sunday,
but declined to further comment.
A former senior law enforcement official who spoke on condition of
anonymity, citing fear of retaliation, said he was struck by the large
amount of resources the DOJ put into investigating Abrego Garcia.
"They came hard at a relatively low level guy, which does not necessarily
make it improper — just odd. Perhaps they wanted the last word, which
seems childish," said the former official. "Typically, you work up the
chain, not down it. That said, at least he gets his due process rights
this time around."
In a telephone interview with NBC News’ Kristen Welker on Saturday, Trump hailed Abrego Garcia’s indictment and predicted it would be easy for
federal prosecutors to convict him. “I think it should be,” he said. “It
should be.”
Multiple questions about Abrego Garcia, the case against him, and the
political fallout remain unanswered.
Will Democrats pay a political price?
For months, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers, his wife, and some Democrats, have
denied that he was an MS-13 gang member. They generally portrayed him as a Maryland construction worker and claimed he was transporting co-workers
when a Tennessee state trooper stopped him on Interstate 40 on Nov. 30,
2022.
The indictment paints a different picture: Abrego Garcia was transporting
nine Hispanic males without identification or luggage in a Chevrolet
Suburban. Prosecutors allege he “knowingly and falsely” told the trooper
they “had been in St. Louis for two weeks doing construction” and were returning to Maryland.
However, license plate reader data showed that the Suburban had not been
near St. Louis for 12 months. Instead, it had been in Houston where,
according to prosecutors, Abrego Garcia had picked up the men. The vehicle
was not carrying tools or construction equipment, but its rear cargo area
had been modified with makeshift seating to transport more passengers.
The apparent strength of the government’s case could reignite debate among Democrats about the risks of focusing on Abrego Garcia’s case. For weeks,
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and other Democrats emphasized that their criticism targeted Trump’s decision to unilaterally deport Abrego Garcia without judicial oversight, not a defense of Abrego Garcia himself.
When Welker asked Trump about Van Hollen, the president mocked the senator
and said defending the Abrego Garcia would backfire on Democrats.
“He’s a loser. The guy’s a loser,” Trump said, referring to Van Hollen. “They’re going to lose because of that same thing. That’s not what people
want to hear. He’s trying to defend a man who’s got a horrible record of
abuse, abuse of women in particular.”
Van Hollen defended his stance in a CNN interview. “You know, I will never apologize for defending the Constitution,” he said. “In fact, it’s the
Trump administration and all his cronies who should apologize to the
country for putting us through this unnecessary situation.”
What happened inside the Trump administration?
In an Oval Office visit on April 15, 2025, Trump, Attorney General Pam
Bondi and other Trump administration officials asserted that it was not possible for the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia’s return from El Salvador as the Supreme Court had ordered.
El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele mocked a reporter for asking whether
he would do so. “How can I return him to the United States? Like if I
smuggle him into the United States?” Bukele said, sitting beside Trump in
the Oval Office. “Of course I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous.”
Trump, in turn, chided the assembled journalists, saying, “They’d love to
have a criminal released into our country. These are sick people.”
Bondi said only El Salvador could decide whether to return Abrego Garcia.
“If they want to return him, we would facilitate it, meaning provide a
plane,” Bondi said. “That’s up for El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us.”
Yet, in a news conference Friday at the Justice Department, Bondi
described the return of Abrego Garcia as smooth and seamless. “We want to
thank President Bukele for agreeing to return Abrego Garcia to the United States,” she said. “Our government presented El Salvador with an arrest warrant, and they agreed to return him to our country.”
Asked what had changed since the traffic stop in 2022, she lauded Trump.
“What has changed is Donald Trump is now president of the United States,”
Bondi said, “and our borders are again secure.”
In an unusual move, Bondi also described allegations against Abrego Garcia
that were not included in the indictment. She said that co-conspirators
alleged that Abrego Garcia “solicited nude photographs and videos of a
minor” and “played a role in the murder of a rival gang member’s mother.”
For decades, attorneys general from both parties and state and local prosecutors have generally accused defendants of crimes only for which a
grand jury indicted them. Discussing other potential crimes has long been regarded as an abuse of prosecutorial power, risking unfair harm to
defendants’ reputations.
A former senior Justice Department official, who requested anonymity,
citing fears of retaliation, said that Bondi often speaks as a partisan
Trump loyalist, not a neutral law enforcement official.
“She says the president’s name every time,” said the former DOJ official.
“She talks more like a politician, stumping for a candidate than an
attorney general who is out there talking independently. You can see that
in the words she uses.”
Why did a top federal prosecutor in Tennessee resign?
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that people close to the matter
said the indictment prompted the resignation of a veteran career
prosecutor who headed the criminal division at the U.S. attorney’s office
where the case was filed. The Journal did not name the prosecutor.
However, days after Abrego Garcia was indicted by a federal grand jury in Nashville, Tennessee, Ben Schrader, the head of criminal division in the
U.S. attorney’s office in Nashville, resigned.
“Earlier today, after nearly 15 years as an Assistant United States
Attorney, I resigned as Chief of the Criminal Division at the U.S.
Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee,” Schrader posted
on LinkedIn. “It has been an incredible privilege to serve as a prosecutor
with the Department of Justice, where the only job description I’ve ever
known is to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons. I
wish all of my colleagues at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nashville and
across the Department the best as they seek to do justice on behalf of the American people.”
Asked about Schrader’s resignation by NBC News, a spokesperson for the
Justice Department said it does not comment on personnel changes.
Schrader, reached via text on his cellphone, sent a two-word reply when
asked why he had resigned: “No comment.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kilmar-abrego-garcia-questions-
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