Kilmar Abrego Garcia Returned to U.S. From El Salvador to Face Criminal Charges

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the man at the center of a political and legal maelstrom after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, was flown back to the United States on Friday to face charges of transporting undocumented migrants.

The stunning move by the Trump administration, after months of fighting any effort to return him, could end the most high-profile court battle over President Trump’s authority to rapidly seize and deport immigrants.

The decision to pull Mr. Abrego Garcia out of El Salvador and instead put him on trial in an American courtroom could provide an offramp for the Trump administration, which has bitterly opposed court orders requiring the government to take steps to release him after his wrongful removal in March.

The 10-page indictment — filed in Federal District Court in Nashville in May and unsealed Friday — might also be an effort to save face: Bringing Mr. Abrego Garcia back to face criminal charges, rather than complying with three federal courts, including the Supreme Court, allows the White House to avoid a legal confrontation while pressing its claims that he is a criminal who poses a threat to American citizens.

“Abrego Garcia has landed in the United States to face justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said at a news conference in Washington. “He was a smuggler of humans and children and women.”