Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national at the center of a political firestorm over immigration enforcement and gang activity, pleaded not guilty on Friday to federal charges of human trafficking and conspiracy. The accused MS-13 gang member, who entered the U.S. illegally in 2012, was previously deported to El Salvador before being returned under court order—only to face a fresh indictment in Tennessee.

Garcia’s defense team informed U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes that they had reviewed the charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop. According to Fox News, Garcia is being prosecuted for allegedly trafficking illegal aliens and conspiring with others to do the same.

The Biden-era immigration legal saga surrounding Garcia began earlier this year, when the Trump administration fought efforts to return the deported Salvadoran national, citing national security concerns. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which ordered Garcia’s release despite warnings from federal authorities.

Since then, Garcia’s situation has been used by left-wing media outlets and open-border activists as a supposed symbol of immigration injustice. But the Justice Department’s newly unsealed grand jury indictment may have crushed that narrative once and for all.

According to federal prosecutors, Garcia was working with others to facilitate the movement of illegal migrants into the U.S. His alleged ties to MS-13, one of the world’s most brutal and violent transnational gangs, were reportedly provided by a confidential informant—though Garcia's lawyers deny the affiliation.

The defense team is now trying to secure his release ahead of trial, arguing that Garcia poses no flight risk and is being smeared without evidence. In a court filing, his attorneys accused the federal government of denying him “due process,” a claim prosecutors say ignores the overwhelming public safety risk posed by releasing an alleged gang-affiliated trafficker.

“Mr. Abrego Garcia asks the Court for what he has been denied the past several months – due process,” his attorneys wrote. “There is no indication that he is a flight risk.”

In an emotional news conference outside the courthouse in Nashville, Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, painted her husband as a victim. “My heart is in Maryland with my kids,” she said, referencing their son’s kindergarten graduation. She further claimed the Trump administration had “abducted and disappeared” her husband—language that echoed talking points used by open-borders activists and left-wing politicians.

Garcia’s legal battle began in earnest after he was deported in March, despite a 2019 ruling that barred his return specifically to El Salvador. The Trump administration maintained that Garcia was a known threat and acted within the law to remove him. His family then filed a lawsuit against the administration, which led to his eventual return—but not without consequence.

Shortly after he arrived back on U.S. soil last week, Garcia was arrested and transferred to Tennessee, where he now faces multiple federal charges.

In a blistering press release, President Donald Trump’s Justice Department called out the political left and their media allies for misleading the public:

“Abrego Garcia was never an innocent ‘Maryland Man’ — he is an illegal alien terrorist, gang member, and human trafficker… Democrat lawmakers like Senator Chris Van Hollen and the so-called ‘journalists’ who defended this criminal must immediately apologize to his victims.”

The DOJ further emphasized that the indictment was evidence of the effectiveness of Trump’s immigration crackdown and the ongoing threat posed by criminal foreign nationals allowed to remain under weak enforcement policies.