New questions emerge from the charges in Kilmar Abrego Garcia case

The sudden return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States on Friday to face federal charges of smuggling migrants across the country was a messaging triumph for the Trump administration.

The sudden return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States on Friday to face federal charges of smuggling migrants across the country was a messaging triumph for the Trump administration.

The news deflected public attention from a series of unanimous court rulings — including a Supreme Court decision — that President Donald Trump did not have the power to unilaterally detain and deport individuals to foreign prisons without a review by a judge.

And the allegations against Abrego Garcia are damning. A federal grand jury found that the 29-year-old was an MS-13 member who transported thousands of undocumented immigrants, including children, from Texas to states across the country for profit for nine years. He allegedly also transported firearms and drugs, abused female migrants and was linked to an incident in Mexico where a tractor-trailer overturned and killed 50 migrants.

Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, a lawyer representing Abrego Garcia, said Saturday that he planned to meet his client for the first time on Sunday, but declined to further comment.

A former senior law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing fear of retaliation, said he was struck by the large amount of resources the DOJ put into investigating Abrego Garcia.