President Donald Trump expressed confidence over the weekend about the U.S. Department of Justice‘s case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the mistakenly deported migrant who is now facing federal charges of human smuggling.
In a phone call on Saturday with NBC News, Trump said the case, which includes two federal criminal counts for allegedly transporting illegal migrants within the United States, should be a “very easy” one to win.
“It should be a very easy case,” the president said.
Trump also revealed the decision from U.S. authorities to send Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. from El Salvador, where he was previously imprisoned, to face federal charges was not one he made, though he signaled that he is “fine” with the DOJ’s move.
“That wasn’t my decision,” the president said. “The Department of Justice decided to do it that way, and that’s fine.”
Trump’s comments follow Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. on Friday to face the federal charges.
In announcing the charges, Attorney General Pam Bondi revealed that “over the past nine years Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring.”
She also noted that the Trump administration would ultimately seek to send him back to El Salvador.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who officials believe to be a member of the violent gang MS-13, was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration in mid-March. Lawyers for the administration have called his deportation as an “administrative error,” but maintain they are not legally obligated to return him to the U.S.
A 2019 immigration judge’s order specifically barred Abrego Garcia’s removal to El Salvador due to credible threats from rival gangs, but did not bar his deportation elsewhere.
ABREGO GARCIA RETURNING TO US TO FACE CHARGES FOR HUMAN SMUGGLING
The deportation case has become a flash point in Trump’s mass deportation operation, with some Democrats, including Sen. Chis Van Hollen (D-MD), taking trips to El Salvador to argue that Abrego Garcia was denied due process.
On Saturday, Trump dismissed Van Hollen as a “loser,” adding that the Democratic senator is “trying to defend a man who’s got a horrible record of abuse.”
