Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been returned to the U.S. to face federal criminal charges

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man whose erroneous deportation to El Salvador became a protracted battle over due process and a test of wills, has been returned to the United States to face human smuggling charges.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man whose erroneous deportation to El Salvador became a protracted battle over due process and a test of wills, was returned to the United States to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee and appeared in federal court Friday.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday in a news conference that he had landed in the U.S. “to face justice.”

Abrego Garcia, 29, has been named in an indictment charging him with transporting within the U.S. people not legally in the country. The two-count indictment, sealed by a Tennessee court last month, alleges that Abrego Garcia participated in a conspiracy over nine years to move people from Texas deeper into the country.

The indictment alleges that those transported included members of the MS-13 gang and that he worked with co-conspirators.

Wearing a wearing a beige button-down shirt, jeans and hiking boots, Abrego Garcia was asked Friday afternoon by a federal judge in Nashville if he understood the issues and and he answered "Yes, I understand" through an interpreter.