Kilmar Abrego Garcia pleads not guilty to human smuggling charges in Tennessee federal court

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation has become a flashpoint in President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, pleaded not guilty Friday to human smuggling charges in a federal court in Tennessee.

The hearing was the first chance the Maryland construction worker has had in a U.S. courtroom to answer the Trump administration's allegations since he was mistakenly deported in March to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

Abrego Garcia's attorneys have characterized the smuggling case as a desperate attempt to justify the mistaken deportation. The investigation was launched weeks after the U.S. government deported Abrego Garcia and following a Supreme Court order and mounting pressure to return him.

Abrego Garcia's lawyers told a judge Friday that some government witnesses cooperated to get favors regarding their immigration status or criminal charges they were facing. A federal agent acknowledged during his testimony that one witness was living in the U.S. illegally with a criminal record and is now getting preferred status.

''He sounds like the exact type of person this government should be trying to deport,'' Federal Public Defender Dumaka Shabazz said. ''They're going to give all these other people deals to stay in the country just to get this one other person.''

Most of Friday's hearing focused on whether Abrego Garcia should be released as he awaits trial. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes said she will write her decision ''sooner rather than later.''

The smuggling charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding in Tennessee during which Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with nine passengers. While officers suspected possible smuggling, Abrego Garcia was allowed to go on his way with only a warning.

Body camera footage shows a calm exchange between officers and Abrego Garcia. The officers then discussed among themselves their suspicions of smuggling before letting him go. One of the officers says, ''He's hauling these people for money.'' Another says Abrego Garcia had $1,400 in an envelope.

The federal indictment accuses Abrego Garcia of smuggling throughout the U.S. hundreds of people living in the country illegally, including children and members of the violent MS-13 gang.

In briefings before Friday's hearing, U.S. attorneys described Abrego Garcia as a danger to the community and a flight risk. They also accused him of trafficking drugs and firearms and of abusing the women he transported, among other claims, although he is not charged with such crimes.

Rob McGuire, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, told the judge Friday that ''migrant transportation is inherently dangerous.''

The prosecutor also presented two orders of protection that Abrego Garcia's wife sought in 2020 and 2021 against him for domestic violence. Jennifer Vasquez Sura said this spring that the couple had worked things out ''privately as a family, including by going to counseling.''

Abrego Garcia's attorneys rejected the prosecution's assertions that he was a danger, while arguing the charges aren't serious enough for detention.

''If Mr. Abrego Garcia is so dangerous, this violent MS-13 guy, why did they wait almost three years to indict him on this?'' Shabazz asked the judge. ''Why wait until literally after the Supreme Court told them they denied him due process and they had to bring him back before they investigate him?''

Special agent testifies

Friday's proceeding included testimony from a Department of Homeland Security agent who quoted three unnamed witnesses who spoke to a grand jury about Abrego Garcia's alleged actions.

Special agent Peter Joseph said that the witnesses saw Abrego Garcia trafficking people, guns or drugs and that Abrego Garcia earned upwards of $100,000 a year. One man said Abrego Garcia was sexually inappropriate towards underage girls, Joseph testified, while a woman said Abrego Garcia had solicited nude photos of her when she was 15 and she believed he was in the MS-13 gang.

During cross-examination, Abrego Garcia's attorneys raised questions about possible conflicts of interest. One man had been convicted of a felony and was previously deported. He also was serving a 30-month sentence when investigators contacted him, Joseph acknowledged. That witness is now living in a halfway house and on his way to getting work authorization.

The second man is a very close relative of the first witness and ''said he would help in return for his release from jail,'' said Richard Tennent, an assistant federal public defender. A third witness had previously been compensated for her work with law enforcement.

Tennent said one of the witnesses told investigators that Abrego Garcia would drive roundtrip between Maryland and Houston — nearly 24 hours each way — two or three times per week. The witness said Abrego Garcia usually had two of his children and his wife with him.

Tennent pointed out that Abrego Garcia has three children, two of whom are autistic.

‘Kilmar wants you to have faith'

Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador who had been living in the United States for more than a decade before he was deported. The expulsion violated a 2019 U.S. immigration judge's order that shielded him from deportation to his native country because he likely faced gang persecution there.

Before Friday's hearing began in Nashville, Abrego Garcia's wife told a crowd outside a church that Thursday marked three months since the Trump administration ''abducted and disappeared my husband and separated him from our family.''

Her voice choked with emotion, Vasquez Sura said she saw her husband for the first time Thursday. She said, ''Kilmar wants you to have faith."

The decision to charge Abrego Garcia criminally prompted the resignation of Ben Schrader, who was chief of the criminal division at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee. He declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press last week. However, a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter confirmed the connection.

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This story has been corrected to show the Trump administration said that the human smuggling operation transported immigrants across the country, not that it brought immigrants into the country illegally.

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Finley reported from Norfolk, Va.