Kilmar Abrego Garcia landed at Nashville International Airport (BNA) and appeared in a Nashville courtroom on Friday to face charges in response to a grand jury indictment that accuses him of completing more than 100 trips while smuggling illegal aliens throughout the country.
A photo captured by ABC News shows Abrego Garcia being placed in the back seat of a pickup truck by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents outside of a private terminal at BNA.
Abrego Garcia was then reportedly transported to the Fred D. Thompson U.S. Courthouse in downtown Nashville where he stood before a judge while handcuffed and shackled.
After his first court appearance on Friday, Magistrate Judge Barbara D. Holmes reportedly said Abrego Garcia will be arraigned next week and will be provided a translator in order for him to “fully understand the indictment with his public defender,” according to Fox 17.
The outlet further reports that Abrego Garcia will remain in custody until his next court date, which is scheduled for Friday, June 13 at 10:00 a.m.
Abrego Garcia’s grand jury indictment, which was quietly filed on May 21 and unsealed on Friday, lays out how he allegedly completed over 100 smuggling trips across the U.S., primarily transporting illegal aliens, including minors and members of the violent MS-13 gang.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi detailed the charges – which include alien smuggling and conspiracy – in a press conference Friday, as previously reported by The Tennessee Star.
The ten-page indictment claims that smuggling was Abrego Garcia’s full-time occupation and accuses him of abusing women and children during transport, soliciting explicit material from a minor, and being linked to the murder of a rival gang member’s mother.
Abrego Garcia was also suspected of trafficking firearms and narcotics.
The indictment was filed just weeks after The Star was the first to report that Abrego Garcia was suspected of human trafficking by the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) during a traffic stop on I-40 in November 2022, and that his release from the scene at the time was ordered by the “Biden-era FBI.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
May the might of Hell land on this demons head and he is thrown away into the lake of fire to suffer-FOREVER!!!
Hey, mayor Freddie, maybe you can invite ole Kilmar over for margaritas.
He’s on video speaking fluent English. I can’t believe the prosecutor doesn’t show that to the judge and ask him to sanction the defense lawyer for lying to the court.