Kilmar Abrego Garcia is one of more than 230 men (mostly Venezuelan) that the Trump regime abducted and shipped to a Salvadoran torture-prison in March. On arrival they were openly brutalized, stripped, had their heads shaved, and were basically condemned to a life sentence in hell, although they had not been convicted of any crime, or even charged with one. And it was carried out in straight up defiance of a federal district court’s order not to do it.

This whole case was and is a horrendous and cruel crime against these men and their families that reeks of the racist hatred of non-white immigrants that is the hallmark of MAGA fascism. And it was also a clear display that the fascists didn’t give a fuck about due process of law or any other constitutional rights—not for these men, but also not for anyone. They even gaslit and lied to the fascist-dominated U.S. Supreme Court, as well as other federal judges, about basic facts of the case. 

Abrego Garcia’s case stood out even from the other men because he had a protective order issued by a court in 2019 that barred the U.S. government from sending him to El Salvador, where (the court ruled) he faced the risk of violence and torture at the hands of a gang there. The U.S. Department of “Justice” (DOJ) admitted that he was sent to the Salvadoran prison by “mistake,” but then took the position that there was nothing they could do about it now.

For all these reasons and others, Abrego Garcia’s abduction/imprisonment became a huge question in society, and the demand to bring him home became widespread, even coming up in nearly all-white, Trump-supporting places like rural Iowa. And the federal courts ordered the Trump regime to bring Abrego Garcia back.

For months the regime defied the public pressure and court orders, and ridiculously claimed that Abrego Garcia was now under the control of the government of El Salvador, and it was impossible to get him back… when everyone knew that one phone call from Trump to El Salvador’s ruler would have been all it took.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, on June 6, the DOJ announced that Abrego Garcia had been returned. This turnaround for sure would not have happened had it not been for the broad social uproar and demand for it; in that sense this points to the real vulnerabilities of the fascist regime behind their façade of being “all-powerful.”

The fact is that the struggle of the people, combined with the dogged work of Kilmar’s lawyers and judges willing to stand up against fascist bullying, has brought him home. This is a victory!

But it is only a partial victory. The fascists are still fascists… and Kilmar Abrego Garcia is still in their hands. So now, instead of apologizing and sending him home to his family, they are charging Abrego Garcia with two counts of conspiracy to transport immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally to different parts of the country. These are serious federal charges that could carry 10 years in jail for each person that he's accused of transporting, basically a life sentence. This, and many other allegations, are contained in an indictment obtained in the Middle Tennessee (Nashville) District federal court that was issued on May 21. 

Of course, the public that is hearing about this has no way of knowing if there is any truth to the charges, or if this is just more made-up BS from an administration that got it’s PhD in made-up BS. But as historian and professor Heather Cox Richardson pointed out:

The indictment has issues. Abrego Garcia is the only person named in the “conspiracy,” and the investigation into it began only in April, after the courts ordered the administration to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. The indictment is based on a 2022 incident in which Abrego Garcia was stopped in Tennessee for speeding with eight passengers in his vehicle. He told police they were construction workers and was neither ticketed nor charged. While the indictment alleges that Abrego Garcia lied to the officer by not revealing he was coming from Texas, the referral report says he told the officer he was coming from Houston, Texas.

It’s also very notable that on the day the indictment was issued—May 21—the chief of the criminal division for the Nashville DOJ office resigned after 15 years. The attorney, Ben Schrader, wrote that “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.” This could be just an ordinary resignation that coincidentally happened on the day the indictment was announced… or it could be a very polite and professional way of saying “this indictment is funky.” Time will tell.

In addition, we should note that the indictment rests heavily on the testimony of one unnamed “co-conspirator” who has admitted to being the leader of the “smuggling ring.” Somebody in that position can easily be pressured to give false testimony, and the DOJ is in a position where, for obvious political reasons, they are under tremendous pressure to show the world that Abrego Garcia was a “bad guy” after all, so the string of injustices already committed against him really don’t matter much (to fascists and those who love them). So they are very likely to bring all the tremendous power of the federal government to bear to get the result they want, rather than one that reflects what really happened.

So, again, this will require tremendous struggle—struggle for justice for Kilmar Abrego Garcia and, even more than that, struggle to force this vicious fascist regime and the bully who heads it OUT NOW!