By Associated Press | June 7, 2025

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man at the center of a heated immigration controversy during the Trump administration, is back in the United States — not as a free man, but to face serious federal charges.

Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador last year despite a court order blocking his removal, has now returned to U.S. soil in handcuffs. He’s accused of playing a central role in a large-scale human smuggling operation, allegedly bringing thousands of migrants — including minors and gang members — into the country illegally.

A Mistake Turned Flashpoint

His deportation in March sparked national outcry, especially among immigration advocates and Democrats. Federal officials initially admitted the removal was an “administrative error,” but refused to comply with multiple court orders to return him. The case turned into a months-long legal and political battle — one that reached the Supreme Court and ended with a judge ordering his return.

Now, Abrego Garcia is back — but not in the way advocates had hoped. Instead of being reunited with his wife and children in Maryland, he was flown in to face a grand jury indictment in Tennessee.

The Charges and Courtroom Drama

According to prosecutors, Abrego Garcia is part of a criminal conspiracy dating back to at least 2016, allegedly smuggling migrants from Central America across U.S. borders — some tied to the violent MS-13 gang. The indictment also accuses him of abusing women and, through a co-conspirator’s claim, even ties him to the murder of a gang member’s mother. That specific murder accusation isn’t formally charged but is referenced in government documents arguing to keep him behind bars.

He appeared in court in Nashville on Friday wearing a white button-down shirt. When asked if he understood the charges, he responded simply, “Sí. Lo entiendo.” (“Yes. I understand.”)

Federal Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes ordered him held in custody at least until his detention hearing next Friday.

Attorneys Call Charges ‘Preposterous’

His legal team is pushing back hard.

“There’s no way a jury is going to see the evidence and believe this sheet metal worker is the mastermind of an international MS-13 smuggling conspiracy,” said attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg. He described the charges as politically motivated, calling them “some of the most preposterous imaginable.”

His wife and children, all living in Maryland, are devastated but relieved he is back on U.S. soil. “Let him talk to his wife. Let him talk to his children. This family has suffered enough,” said Ama Frimpong, legal director of the immigrant advocacy group CASA.

A Deepening Legal and Political Quagmire

The case has already claimed one casualty within the Department of Justice. Ben Schrader, then-chief of the criminal division in Nashville’s U.S. Attorney’s office, resigned shortly after the indictment was filed. Though he did not publicly link his resignation to the case, he posted a cryptic message online: “The only job description I’ve ever known is to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons.”

Abrego Garcia’s legal troubles appear to stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee, where officers suspected human trafficking. Although no charges were filed then and he was only warned for an expired license, the Department of Homeland Security later pointed to the incident in its April report, suggesting he was transporting undocumented laborers from Texas to Maryland.

His wife explained that it wasn’t unusual for him to drive groups of construction workers between job sites and insisted he never committed a crime.

A Man Caught in the Crossfire

Abrego Garcia lived in the U.S. for over 14 years, working in construction, raising a family, and reportedly caring for three children with disabilities. In 2019, Maryland police labeled him an MS-13 gang member — a claim he has consistently denied and was never charged for.

A U.S. immigration judge had ruled he should not be deported to El Salvador due to credible fears of gang-related persecution. Still, the Trump administration removed him in defiance of that order, prompting a fierce legal fight that culminated in Friday’s dramatic return.

Even now, if he’s convicted, the government will have to return to immigration court to determine if he can be deported — a legal battle that remains ongoing.

Broader Implications

His return comes just days after another deported immigrant — a Guatemalan man wrongfully sent to Mexico — was also brought back under court order. Immigration advocates argue that these high-profile cases highlight systemic flaws in the U.S. deportation system, particularly under the Trump administration’s hardline policies.

Whether Kilmar Abrego Garcia is guilty or a victim of political overreach remains to be seen. For now, his case stands as a powerful symbol in the national debate over immigration, justice, and the limits of executive power.

Source: AP News – Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to the US, charged with transporting people in the country illegally

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The last time Han Tae-soon saw her daughter, Kyung-ha, she was just six years old, playing near their home in Seoul back in May 1975.

“I asked her if she wanted to come to the market with me. She said no, she was going to play with her friends,” Ms. Han recalls. But when she returned, her daughter was gone.

For more than four decades, Ms. Han did not see Kyung-ha again. When they finally reunited, Kyung-ha was no longer the little girl she remembered but a middle-aged American woman named Laurie Bender — nearly unrecognizable.

Ms. Han believes her daughter was kidnapped, taken to an orphanage, and then illegally sent to the United States to be adopted by another family. Now 71, she is suing the South Korean government for failing to stop her daughter’s illegal adoption.

Her story is part of a growing wave of allegations exposing fraud, kidnappings, and human trafficking within South Korea’s overseas adoption program — a program that has sent more children abroad than any other country in the world.

A Controversial Adoption Program Under Fire

Since the 1950s, between 170,000 and 200,000 South Korean children have been adopted overseas, mostly by families in Western countries. The program began after the Korean War, when the country was devastated and many children were orphaned or displaced.

For decades, private agencies handled the adoptions with little government oversight. A landmark inquiry in March revealed that successive governments had failed to regulate the process, allowing children to be “mass exported” for profit.

Many of the children sent abroad had been taken without consent — some kidnapped, others falsely declared abandoned. Parents like Ms. Han were left desperate, searching for decades for their lost children.

A 44-Year Search Ends with DNA

Ms. Han spent years visiting police stations, orphanages, and appearing on TV to find Kyung-ha. “I searched so hard, my toenails fell out,” she says.

In 1990, she thought she had found her daughter but was heartbroken when the woman admitted she was not Kyung-ha.

The breakthrough came in 2019, when Ms. Han joined 325 Kamra, a DNA-matching group for Korean adoptees. The match came quickly — Laurie Bender, a nurse living in California.

They reunited in Seoul, sharing a tearful embrace at the airport.

“I’m a hairdresser. When I touched her hair, I knew it was my daughter,” Ms. Han said. “The first thing I told her was ‘I’m so sorry’ — for all the years we were apart.”

Kyung-ha, who now goes by Laurie, said their reunion “felt like a hole in my heart was healed.”

The Dark Truth Behind the Adoptions

Kyung-ha was kidnapped near her home by a woman who falsely claimed her mother didn’t want her anymore. After being taken to a train station and abandoned, Kyung-ha was picked up by police and sent to an orphanage before being flown to the US with forged papers.

This heartbreaking case is far from unique.

At the height of the program in the 1980s, thousands of Korean children were sent abroad annually — many taken under questionable circumstances. Adoption agencies, driven by profit and minimal government control, often falsified documents and hid fees.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report described the process as a “mass transportation of children like cargo” — with little regard for their wellbeing. Some children died during transit; others were swapped in paperwork to avoid refunding fees.

Accountability and a Path Forward

Despite the evidence, some agencies deny wrongdoing. Holt International, South Korea’s largest adoption agency, is facing lawsuits but denies claims of illegal adoptions under its former chairman.

Experts say the government must share responsibility for enabling the system, describing it as “the captain while the agencies rowed the boat.”

The government has since enacted reforms, aiming to tighten adoption regulations and reduce overseas adoptions. Numbers have dropped dramatically — only 79 children were adopted abroad in 2023, compared to thousands in the 1980s.

Healing the Wounds, But the Journey Continues

Even after their reunion, Ms. Han and Laurie face challenges — living continents apart, with language barriers and years of lost time.

Ms. Han studies English daily, desperate to reconnect with her daughter beyond occasional texts.

“Finding her doesn’t feel like truly finding her. I know where she is, but we can’t communicate. My whole life was ruined, and no money can make up for that,” she says.

Their story is a powerful reminder of the human cost behind South Korea’s overseas adoption program — a painful legacy that the country is only just beginning to confront.

Source: BBC – Her daughter was kidnapped and sent abroad – 44 years later, they found each other

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