Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man wrongfully deported by the Trump administration earlier this year, pleaded not guilty Friday to human smuggling charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee.
Authorities allege that he was part of a scheme that transported undocumented immigrants across the United States.
Abrego Garcia has been at the center of a high-profile immigration case since his deportation to El Salvador, which immigration officials initially justified by alleging ties to the MS-13 gang. He returned to the U.S. last week after the Trump administration delayed compliance with a Supreme Court ruling that ordered his return for nearly two months.
A federal judge began hearing arguments on June 14 on whether to hold a pretrial detention hearing to determine if Abrego Garcia should remain in custody pending trial, according to a report by ABC News. He was indicted on two counts, including human smuggling, on June 9.
The Justice Department opened an investigation last month linking Abrego Garcia to a man operating an unauthorized transportation business allegedly used by undocumented immigrants. That man, prosecutors say, charged $350 per person to move migrants across the country and had previously employed Abrego Garcia.
Sources familiar with the case told the outlet in May that federal investigators interviewed Jose Ramon Hernandez-Reyes, a convicted felon currently incarcerated in Alabama. Hernandez-Reyes was listed as the owner of the vehicle Abrego Garcia was driving when he was pulled over by the Tennessee Highway Patrol in 2022.
Hernandez-Reyes reportedly told investigators that he met Abrego Garcia around 2015 and hired him several times to transport undocumented migrants from Texas to other parts of the country. The frequency of those alleged trips remains unclear.
Court records show Hernandez-Reyes pleaded guilty in 2020 to one count of unlawful transportation of an undocumented immigrant after police stopped him in Mississippi while transporting nine people. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison and later deported. He was found back in the U.S. two years later and charged in Texas with illegal discharge of a firearm.
Body camera footage from the 2022 traffic stop shows Abrego Garcia was pulled over for speeding while transporting eight passengers. He told troopers the group had been working in construction in Missouri. When asked for proof of insurance, he said he needed to call his boss because he didn't know where the document was.
Troopers briefly discussed the possibility of human trafficking, citing the group's lack of luggage. However, Abrego Garcia was released with only a warning for driving with an expired license, according to a Department of Homeland Security report released in April.
Earlier this week, ABC News reported that federal prosecutors argued Abrego Garcia's alleged ties to MS-13 make him a risk for obstructing justice or intimidating potential witnesses, including alleged co-conspirators.
"The United States would submit that at least one co-conspirator has described that the defendant has previously used his membership in MS-13 not just to facilitate his illegal activity in the smuggling conspiracy but also to intimidate others in the conspiracy who attempted to confront him about the treatment of female smuggling victims and his smuggling of firearms and drugs," prosecutors wrote in a court filing.
Abrego Garcia's defense team rejected the government's argument, calling the reasoning for a detention hearing unfounded.
"It should also come as no surprise that the government has not cited a single case holding that a generic alien-smuggling charge provides grounds for a detention hearing," his attorneys said. "This case should not be the first."
Abrego Garcia and his legal team are also pursuing separate legal challenges related to his wrongful deportation earlier this year.
In a motion filed Wednesday, his attorneys argued that the federal government failed to disclose meaningful details about its efforts to comply with court orders requiring his return, and they are asking a federal judge to sanction the government for allegedly refusing to cooperate in facilitating his reentry to the United States.
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