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You are here: Home / Immigration / (Comparatively) Good News: Kilmar Abrego Garcia Being Flown Back to the United States

(Comparatively) Good News: Kilmar Abrego Garcia Being Flown Back to the United States

by Anne Laurie|  June 6, 20256:10 pm| 91 Comments

This post is in: Immigration, Trump Crime Cartel

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EXCLUSIVE: Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, is on his way back to the U.S. to face criminal charges, sources tell ABC News. https://t.co/X1gCO4sB6q pic.twitter.com/Gb112lilWx

— ABC News (@ABC) June 6, 2025

The Trump admin blinked. After months of outright defiance of court orders, and many boasts that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was "not coming back" — he's coming back.

Maybe he will be found guilty of these charges. Maybe not. Either way, he will get DUE PROCESS, because that's the law! https://t.co/TweyFXXpqj pic.twitter.com/KaADZlYYqb

— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) June 6, 2025

Per ABC, “Kilmar Abrego Garcia back in US to face charges of helping traffic ‘thousands’ of migrants”:

Mistakenly deported Salvadoran native Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been brought back to the United States where he will face criminal charges for allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the U.S.

More than two months after the Trump administration admitted it mistakenly deported Abrego Garcia from Maryland to his native El Salvador, a federal grand jury has indicted him for allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the United States.

A two-count indictment, which was filed under seal in federal court in Tennessee last month and unsealed Friday, alleges Abrego Garcia, 29, participated in a yearslong conspiracy to haul undocumented migrants from Texas to the interior of the country.

He was scheduled to have his initial court appearance Friday in the Middle District of Tennessee.

Abrego Garcia’s return follows a series of court battles in which the Trump administration repeatedly said it was unable to bring him back, drawing the country toward the brink of a constitutional crisis when the administration failed to heed the Supreme Court’s order to facilitate his return…

The alleged conspiracy spanned nearly a decade and involved the domestic transport of thousands of noncitizens from Mexico and Central America, including some children, in exchange for thousands of dollars, according to the indictment.

Abrego-Garcia is alleged to have participated in more than 100 such trips, according to the indictment. Among those allegedly transported were members of the Salvadoran gang MS-13, sources familiar with the investigation said.

Abrego-Garcia is the only member of the alleged conspiracy charged in the indictment…

Attorney General Pam Bondi, at a Friday afternoon press conference, thanked Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele for “agreeing to return Abrego Garcia to the United States.”…

Bondi said that if Abrego Garcia is convicted of the charges, upon the completion of his sentence he will be deported back to his home country of El Salvador.

“The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring,” Bondi said. “They found this was his full time job, not a contractor. He was a smuggler of humans and children and women. He made over 100 trips, the grand jury found, smuggling people throughout our country.”

In a statement to ABC News, Abrego Garcia’s attorney said that he’s going to keep fighting to ensure Abrego Garcia receives a fair trial.

The Trump Administration always had the power to bring Kilmar Abrego back. They were always lying about this, all of it was lies.https://t.co/V0pnV9TMfQ

They chose to disobey court orders because they are authoritarians who regard the Constitution as an inconvenience. https://t.co/Ds5QrF7kwV

— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) June 6, 2025

After months of ignoring our Constitution, it seems the Trump Admin has relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and due process for Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

This has never been about the man—it’s about his constitutional rights & the rights of all.

Full statement: pic.twitter.com/q28RLNEj2S

— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) June 6, 2025

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Previous Post: « Abrego Garcia Is Returned to the US
Next Post: Friday Night Open Thread »

Reader Interactions

91Comments

  1. 1.

    rikyrah

    June 6, 2025 at 6:16 pm

    To face BULLSHYT charges😠

  2. 2.

    Bupalos

    June 6, 2025 at 6:19 pm

    One might guess that they relented after deciding they could win a criminal prosecution, and can probably time a verdict heading in to the 2026 elections. Even if that’s true, it’s still an important win. It is just what our wins are likely to be like.

  3. 3.

    gene108

    June 6, 2025 at 6:20 pm

    Van Hollen’s statement is bullshit.

    The charges against Abrego Garcia seem to be clearly aimed at fucking up this man’s life even more.

    Unfortunately, he’s not a former president running for re-election, so the judiciary won’t bend over backwards to get him out of trouble and people won’t donate millions to pay his lawyers.

    Also, this:

    In her remarks, Bondi strayed beyond what was alleged in the indictment, claiming that Abrego Garcia played a role in the murder of a rival gang member’s mother and solicited naked pictures from a minor. Neither of those allegations appear in the charging documents.

    Trump, Miller, Bondi and every fucking Republican in this country wants to destroy this man, because there’s no fucking way Trump & Co. will ever admit to a mistake.

    All I have is impotent rage.

  4. 4.

    Bupalos

    June 6, 2025 at 6:23 pm

    @rikyrah: Likely, or at least significantly slanted and motivated prosecution. He does seem to have had some kind of thing where he probably made some money transporting undocumented workers, and they can probably parley that into a successful unjust prosecution and potential political win. Although the atmosphere for this kind of shyt might be different in 2026.

  5. 5.

    BlueGuitarist

    June 6, 2025 at 6:25 pm

    possibly Ben Schrader, until recently Chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s office in Nashville resigned because decision to charge Kilmar Abrego Garcia is politically motivated.

    https://bsky.app/profile/thetnholler.bsky.social/post/3lqxtqztnvc2w

  6. 6.

    Anne Laurie

    June 6, 2025 at 6:26 pm

    @rikyrah: Yep.  It is not impossible that he helped  transport (fellow) undocumented refugees out of Texas — much like Gov. Abbott did — to more hospitable states.  He may even have taken money to do so.  But the LEOs in Tennessee considered this a ‘release with a warning’ civil offense.  And he’s entitled to due process, no matter what Trump’s idiot minion Pam Bondi and the Reicht-wing media may be attempting to scare people with after the fact.

  7. 7.

    gene108

    June 6, 2025 at 6:26 pm

    @Bupalos:

    This isn’t a win. It’s a flex by Trump and his people. Even if we “win” or they comply with court orders, they’ll never stop coming after a person they want to destroy. They’ll make sure they are never in the wrong. They say he has ties to Ms-13, and their going to use the full power of the federal government to prove this in court.

    Prosecutors have only one mode and that’s to exact the maximum punishment for anyone indicted. I doubt he has the money to really fight the federal government.

    Hope someone sets up a GoFundMe for his legal defense. It probably won’t get enough money, but whatever is raised has to help.

  8. 8.

    Bupalos

    June 6, 2025 at 6:28 pm

    @gene108: I think we’re probably doing it wrong when we insist on this kind of purity of good and evil. Decent chance he was engaged in stuff that was illegal, and that might be “technically illegal” or “significantly illegal.” And we don’t actually know. And likewise, don’t underestimate the ability of our opponents to be rather coldly calculating in ways that they think can enhance their power, rather than mindlessly filled with hate.

    Trump himself probably doesn’t possess the ability to hate or love in any traditional understanding of the term. He’s psychologically compromised by a severe personality disorder.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    June 6, 2025 at 6:29 pm

    @gene108:

    They said they would never bring him back and they are. They’ll never admit anything, even if we could someday throw them into prison.

  10. 10.

    Anne Laurie

    June 6, 2025 at 6:33 pm

    @Bupalos: Did you listen to the top video or read the extract?  ABC was not afraid to use phrases like ‘mistakenly deported’ and ‘alleged conspiracy’.  Abrego Garcia is still facing a long & unpleasant legal gauntlet, but it’s hardly a publicity triumph for the Oval Office Occupation.

  11. 11.

    schrodingers_cat

    June 6, 2025 at 6:34 pm

    @Baud: It is a defeat for Team Orange. They backed down. However, Garcia’s struggles are not over.

  12. 12.

    Bupalos

    June 6, 2025 at 6:35 pm

    @gene108: No it’s a solid win for the principle of individual rights within a democracy, which is actually huge. Much bigger than an individual.

    I agree with you that the magic eight ball has nothing good to say right now about the prospects for this individual. He’ll be at the center of a political fight (that will have significant resources on our side as well) but the outcome will probably be determined by how people are feeling about interpretive and grey areas of the law at the time that the case actually happens.

    From the broader point of view, we need to understand that this itself is a victory. And even if they manage to destroy him, we’ve pulled something out of the fire that we can use.

  13. 13.

    satby

    June 6, 2025 at 6:35 pm

    Interesting that a guy who lived in Maryland was indicated in Tennessee. Surprised they didn’t run a federal grand jury in Texas if that’s where he was supposed to be transporting people from, or in his home state. Seems like venue shopping.

  14. 14.

    Baud

    June 6, 2025 at 6:35 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Correct. The only silver lining is that he’ll probably now have access to fundraising dollars and good lawyers, unlike most other people targeted by Trump.

  15. 15.

    schrodingers_cat

    June 6, 2025 at 6:38 pm

    OT art break.

    A landscape, that I drew and colored with Staedtler watercolor pencils

    And lettering using my own cursive and alcohol markers.

  16. 16.

    zhena gogolia

    June 6, 2025 at 6:43 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Lovely!

  17. 17.

    Bupalos

    June 6, 2025 at 6:44 pm

    @Anne Laurie: I hadn’t, now I have… ABC’s coverage there seems to follow impeccable journalistic standards. There’s nothing about it that makes me question my basic assumption, which is that the administration most likely caved on an issue of legal rights because it thinks it can score a political win through prosecution that will offset that.

    Hopefully they’ll be wrong about that, they very well may be. But I have no confidence in the idea that they backed away from this without thinking they had a different win they could get.

    These things aren’t really in opposition though. This is a major win for democracy, whatever happens down the road.

  18. 18.

    Dan B

    June 6, 2025 at 6:46 pm

    I’m hoping that gay makeup artist from Venezuela, Andry Romero, can be brought to the US.  He’s in serious danger in prison.  There are hundreds more that are innocent, as well.

  19. 19.

    schrodingers_cat

    June 6, 2025 at 6:46 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Thanks! Which one?

  20. 20.

    H.E.Wolf

    June 6, 2025 at 6:47 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: ​
     I like it. I’m going to think of the words as a good omen for Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s eventual exoneration.

  21. 21.

    zhena gogolia

    June 6, 2025 at 6:49 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Both!

  22. 22.

    schrodingers_cat

    June 6, 2025 at 6:53 pm

    OT I have immersed myself in the literature and scholarship about the partitition of India. Are BJers interested in this topic?

    The absolute breakdown of communication between the League and Congress in the late 30s reminds me of our current political moment.

  23. 23.

    Bupalos

    June 6, 2025 at 6:54 pm

    @Dan B: If I was an evil Republican schemer, I might bring Abrego Garcia back because I knew that if I could successfully and legally smear and ruin him, and create a political impression that the people arguing for these niceties of legal rights were actually just in bed with criminals, then it would put a stamp of approval on all the illegal renditions. All the ones that have happened and all the ones to come.

    I think it’s pretty important that our side doesn’t go overboard with insisting on a particular portrait of Abrego-Garcia or any of the other victims here. The reason he needs to have his due process is because he’s a human being. Not because he’s a great guy. There is a real authoritarian trap in all this.

  24. 24.

    schrodingers_cat

    June 6, 2025 at 6:56 pm

    I also have two coloring pages to share.

    From Basford’s Enchanted Forest

    And Karlzon’s Daydreams

  25. 25.

    Bupalos

    June 6, 2025 at 6:58 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: I would love to know more about this. I am woefully WOEFULLY ignorant of Indian history except as it’s been pumped in through… I guess the Ghandi movie in the 80’s? Which people here were like “but it’s so loooong!!!” and I was like “this is clearly like dipping your toes in the ocean for 20 seconds.”

    And I’m an undergraduate history major with a graduate degree… basically in Straussian-adjacent things… this to my shame I guess. But history on the “subcontinent?” I think it basically doesn’t exist within any standard curriculum in the United States or Canada, it’s barely an adjunct to British history.

  26. 26.

    Baud

    June 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm

    @Bupalos: Agree.

     

     

    @schrodingers_cat: 👍

  27. 27.

    Nancy

    June 6, 2025 at 7:06 pm

    @Bupalos:

    You raise an important point. Our rights do not have to be earned by exemplary behavior. Due process is necessary for our society as well as for the individual. And innocent until proven guilty should matter. Tho’ not to Ms. Bondi. She apparently believes in innocent until smeared and justice for rich white men.

  28. 28.

    Citizen Scientist

    June 6, 2025 at 7:06 pm

     

    @schrodingers_cat: very nice! 🙌🏼

  29. 29.

    gene108

    June 6, 2025 at 7:09 pm

    @Bupalos:

    These things aren’t really in opposition though. This is a major win for democracy, whatever happens down the road.

    The only reason Abrego Garcia was brought back is because the administration spent the intervening months investigating any possible criminal activity.

    @Bupalos:

    PM
    @gene108: I think we’re probably doing it wrong when we insist on this kind of purity of good and evil.

    This isn’t a purity test. It’s the stone cold recognition that the only reason he’s back is so he can be thrown him back in jail and then deported.

    It’s as much of a win as threats to prosecute NYS AG for errors in filing a mortgage application.

    It’s using the full power of federal law enforcement to do directly target one person, who otherwise would not be a subject of a criminal investigation.

    If they can kick someone out of the country, and/or throw him in jail, and the only reason Trump complied with a court order is, after specifically targeting him for a criminal investigation, they think they can win a court case and throw him in jail again.

    I do not feel comfortable with federal law enforcement singling out one person for prosecution, who they otherwise have no reason to prosecute.

    If they can target one thorn in their side with criminal investigation, who else can they turn the powers of the federal government against?

    This is a step in a very dangerous direction, where federal criminal investigations become politically motivated.

    I do not understand how people are not seeing this as a “slippery slope” situation. They will keep investigating and trying to charge people for primarily political reasons.

  30. 30.

    Bupalos

    June 6, 2025 at 7:09 pm

    BTW Garcia probably won’t be bonded out because that would mean he’d be actually in the public eye.

    It would be awesome if he was bonded out, and got in front of cameras, and explained how driving a van across the country full of undocumented workers is actually just totally a part of our functioning economy, and something we should stop pretending resides somewhere other than that.

  31. 31.

    laura

    June 6, 2025 at 7:10 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Yes, please. Nice inking you done there! I like your color combinations.

  32. 32.

    Baud

    June 6, 2025 at 7:10 pm

    @gene108:

    They will keep investigating and trying to charge people for primarily political reasons

     
    That was baked in with the election. It’s not a new development.

  33. 33.

    trollhattan

    June 6, 2025 at 7:12 pm

    @Bupalos: driving a van across the country full of undocumented workers

    In the ’60s we called that “hippies on the road.”

  34. 34.

    Bupalos

    June 6, 2025 at 7:14 pm

    @gene108: We’re largely in agreement on the mechanics here. It’s still a huge win.

    The Soviet Union was brought down partially and maybe largely because Stalin encoded a lot of human rights in a constitution that were subsequently completely ignored. And laughed at. Everyone knew these rights didn’t actually exist in the sense of being defended. Stalin had written them simply as rhetoric.

    But some people decided to act like that basic law was real, that the rhetoric had reality, and a decade or two later after they did, one of the strongest authoritarian regimes ever to exist was crumbling, and a decade later in shambles and scrambling.

    That Abrego-Garcia is being recognized as having these rights is huge. The only way we miss this is because we don’t understand how much further down the ladder we actually are.

    This is big, and we need to make careful use of it.

  35. 35.

    Jackie

    June 6, 2025 at 7:14 pm

    Will Garcia’s family get to see him? The biggest cruelty would be to deny him access to his family; find him guilty and redisappear him to another prison. Or back to El Salvador’s prison.

    If he’s deported to another country – NOT imprisoned – his family could join him in exile, because that’s what it would be.

  36. 36.

    PsiFighter37

    June 6, 2025 at 7:18 pm

    The charges Bondi stated sound completely made up. There’s a reason they filed the case in the backwards state of Tennessee than in Maryland.

  37. 37.

    gene108

    June 6, 2025 at 7:18 pm

    @satby:

    Interesting that a guy who lived in Maryland was indicated in Tennessee.

    The indictment is related to a traffic stop of Abrego Garcia three years ago east of Nashville, where he was driving a van with eight other people in it. The officer thought it might be suspicious and related to trafficking. Abrego Garcia said he was taking people to a work site. Officer let Kilmar go with a warning for him to renew his expired license.

    The van was registered to someone serving 30 years in federal prison for illegally transporting illegal aliens from Texas to other parts of the country. When investigators questioned him, he said he sometimes hired Garcia Abrego.

    There allegedly five or six other people involved with this, who are not being investigated, according to news reports.

  38. 38.

    gene108

    June 6, 2025 at 7:21 pm

    @Baud:

    Still terrifying.

  39. 39.

    cmorenc

    June 6, 2025 at 7:24 pm

    @satby:

    They chose Tennessee because that is the location where they allegedly caught him in the act of transporting the undocumented individuals – by the Tennessee highway patrol officers who stopped him in Tennessee.  It may be that they lack actual proof he was bringing them from Texas, so why risk bringing the case in Texas, with risk of creating federal double jeopardy if they lost the case there in federal court.

  40. 40.

    Bupalos

    June 6, 2025 at 7:24 pm

    @gene108: You’ve dug in to these detail more than I have, but that was my suspicion. The administration wouldn’t bring him back if they didn’t have a plan for how that would work out better for them.

    Someone had to pitch this to Trump.

  41. 41.

    gene108

    June 6, 2025 at 7:26 pm

    @Bupalos:

    I discovered the Empire podcast. It covers a lot of Indian history and British history. The hosts are journalist Anita Anand and historian William Dalrymple.

    They have over 200 episodes. I’ve been skipping around the episodes.

    I recommend it to get a better understanding of Indian and British history.

    https://m.youtube.com/@EmpirePodUK/podcasts

  42. 42.

    satby

    June 6, 2025 at 7:26 pm

    @cmorenc: so they’re leaving no misdemeanor unturned to try to set up a selective prosecution. Thanks, makes sense.

    Edit to correct who I was replying to.

  43. 43.

    Bupalos

    June 6, 2025 at 7:27 pm

    @PsiFighter37: This is the kind of polarized thought that isn’t going to help us.

    Here’s the thing. Trump is better than all of us at understanding how our polarization opens up possibilities for him.

    He’s here and successful BECAUSE of the way polarization exerts magnetic influence on our perception of reality.

  44. 44.

    Bupalos

    June 6, 2025 at 7:28 pm

    @gene108: fantastic, thank you for the rec.

  45. 45.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    June 6, 2025 at 7:29 pm

    @Bupalos:

    You’ve dug in to these detail more than I have, but that was my suspicion. The administration wouldn’t bring him back if they didn’t have a plan for how that would work out better for them.

    Someone had to pitch this to Trump.

    How they think it would work out better for them, which is not guaranteed

  46. 46.

    Jay

    June 6, 2025 at 7:30 pm

    @gene108:

    The van was allegedlyregistered to someone serving 30 years in federal prison for illegally transporting illegal aliens from Texas to other parts of the country. When investigators questioned him, he alledgely said he sometimes hired Garcia Abrego.

  47. 47.

    Bupalos

    June 6, 2025 at 7:34 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Very much agreed, a very good point.

    They think they know how politics works and that it won’t change on them. It very well might. Actually, it’s more than likely. The politics of this in 2026 is very likely… maybe almost certain… to be different than the politics of 2025. Bit of a coin toss how, although I’d suggest increasing prices and rotting crops…. those might be big things in 2026. Just thinking about the physical reality of this…. it’s VERY likely.

  48. 48.

    Bupalos

    June 6, 2025 at 7:44 pm

    @Jackie: This regime isn’t interested in personal cruelty. They’re more focussed than we are used to thinking about on a project of metastasized social cruelty.

    We shouldn’t mistake what arena we’re fighting in.

  49. 49.

    Lyrebird

    June 6, 2025 at 7:45 pm

    @gene108: All I have is impotent rage.

    I have rage and not much money to chip in, but I hope the man has THEEE BEST lawyers, and I have a fierce hope that he will win PILES OF MONEY from a future defamation suit.  Jean Carroll may or may not receive the damages she was awarded, but it has happened before, and the fascists apparently can’t shut up.  Not all of them are as addled as Trump, who maybe thought the annotated photo was just a photo, not a photo with letters added.

    This man is owed major damages, but first he had to get out of that foreign prison.

  50. 50.

    PsiFighter37

    June 6, 2025 at 7:47 pm

    @Bupalos: That was a verbal salad that addresses nothing about the case at hand.

  51. 51.

    Jay

    June 6, 2025 at 7:50 pm

    Anna Bower
    ‪@annabower.bsky.social‬

    Follow
    Around the time that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was indicted in the Middle District of Tennessee, the chief of the criminal division in that district posted this on LinkedIn:

    “Earlier today, after nearly 15 years as an Assistant United States Attorney, I resigned…”
    Ben Schrader • 3rd+
    Former Chief, Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney’
    2w •
    + Follow

    Earlier today, after nearly 15 years as an Assistant United States Attorney, I resigned as Chief of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee.
    It has been an incredible privilege to serve as a prosecutor with the Department of Justice, where the only job description I’ve ever known is to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons. I wish all of my colleagues at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nashville and across the Department the best as they seek to do justice on behalf of the American people.
    176

    35 comments • 3 reposts
    ALT
    June 6, 2025 at 3:31 PM

    Everybody can reply
    1.5K reposts
    104 quotes
    4.8K likes

    https://bsky.app/profile/annabower.bsky.social/post/3lqxv743nq22d

  52. 52.

    WTFGhost

    June 6, 2025 at 7:53 pm

    “The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring,”

    To pull a Dwight Schrute, “FALSE. Grand juries are not finders of fact.”

  53. 53.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    June 6, 2025 at 7:54 pm

    @Bupalos:

    We can hope that it changes on them and I think it will too. I think it already has to some extent. Prices haven’t gone down like Trump promised he’d do on the campaign trail. Americans, for whatever reason (he’s a bidness man!) used to give him high marks for the economy and now they no longer do, mostly because of all the tariff war bullshit

    I’d like to think many people are turned off by stories like those of what’s happened to Abrego Garcia, to student visa holders targeted by the admin, the fact that ICE officers are masked, have refused to identify themselves, etc

    Polling seems to indicate that a majority actually disapprove of Trump’s immigration policy, at least as of a few weeks ago

  54. 54.

    JoyceH

    June 6, 2025 at 7:56 pm

    @PsiFighter37: I think it’s a pile of crap too. It’s my understanding that Abrego García had a full time union job. There will be time sheets, there will be coworkers. The government will have to explain how this guy was flitting all over the country being a master criminal gang member and still clock in the next morning.

  55. 55.

    feebog

    June 6, 2025 at 7:57 pm

    Rather significant that Ben Schrader, the Chief of the Criminal Division in this district, resigned yesterday over concerns that this indictment is politically motivated.  Lead Prosecutors don’t resign over minor disputes.  I would disagree with those who don’t think there is a case here. there is.  The question is whether it can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.  No question he was transporting multiple men in a van but can the Government prove any of them were undocumented aliens?  Do they even know who any of them are?  Or where they are?  What they have is that he was driving a van owned by a guy who had a previous record of transporting undocumented workers.  They may have more, most often all the information is not included in the indictment.  Sounds suspiciously thin to me.

  56. 56.

    Soprano2

    June 6, 2025 at 7:57 pm

    @rikyrah: Yeah, complete bullshit. It’s how they ‘saved face’.

  57. 57.

    Dan B

    June 6, 2025 at 8:02 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: I’m interested.

  58. 58.

    The Audacity of Krope

    June 6, 2025 at 8:03 pm

    @PsiFighter37: That was a verbal salad that addresses nothing about the case at hand.

    Otherwise known as the “Bupalos Special” at the Balloon Juice deli. Generally served with a side of willful obtuseness.

  59. 59.

    Jeffro

    June 6, 2025 at 8:03 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:It is a defeat for Team Orange. They backed down.

    110%

    Just wait until KAG ‘unveils’ his non-MS-13 knuckle tats on live TV

  60. 60.

    Jay

    June 6, 2025 at 8:06 pm

    @feebog:

    How does one maintain a valid vehicle registration and insurance if you are serving a 30 year jail sentence in a TexAss prison?

  61. 61.

    YY_Sima Qian

    June 6, 2025 at 8:14 pm

    This is how soft authoritarian regimes such as Singapore & Hungary go after political opponents.

    However, Singapore at least does not target inconsequential little guys. As a rule, not even hard authoritarian regimes such as the PRC & Vietnam target inconsequential little guys w/ such relentlessness.

    & we are getting none of the competence in governance found in Singapore, the PRC & Vietnam (or even Hungary), quite the opposite.

  62. 62.

    The Audacity of Krope

    June 6, 2025 at 8:15 pm

    @Jay: I’m not saying it happened here, but people in prison do have friends, relatives, or associates conduct their personal business for them while they’re in prison.

  63. 63.

    WTFGhost

    June 6, 2025 at 8:19 pm

    @Bupalos: @gene108: No it’s a solid win for the principle of individual rights within a democracy, which is actually huge. Much bigger than an individual.

    Hm. Where are the other deportees sent to the gulag? Still there? You sure this is a big win for individual rights?

    I only ask this, because one person, coming home to face trumped up charges (or so I assume, given the ethics of those bringing those charges), and all the rest being left there to rot, looks to me like a net loss for individual rights. They wouldn’t have brought him back, unless they could create an indictment.

    So, what *is* the win? The ability to come home and fight against criminal charges that presumably would never have been brought, but for him being an accidental victim of the Trump administration? I wouldn’t see that as a “win” – I’d see it as “same shit, different day.”

    Maybe it *feels* better, when authors can proclaim what a HUGE HUGE WIN it is for democracy? Maybe it’s because I’m in chronic pain, but I don’t give a damn about what puff piece an author gets to make money off of, I care about freedom, so, just being “a hero!” and “a big win!” sounds like a lot of bullshit to me.

    I’m not saying this to be nasty toward you – I really, truly, do not see any sort of win, I just see the cops getting denied their collar, hence demanding that someone find another crime, even if they have to invent one.

  64. 64.

    Jay

    June 6, 2025 at 8:20 pm

    @The Audacity of Krope:

    Here, one has to be present in person with valid ID. The registered owner, (s) are the only ones who can insure a vehicle.

    If you are in prison, the best you can do is transfer title or have a friend park it in a garage.

  65. 65.

    Ramona

    June 6, 2025 at 8:22 pm

    @Bupalos: Jeeezus! I cannot fucking believe that I find myself agreeing with darned Bupalos!

  66. 66.

    trollhattan

    June 6, 2025 at 8:22 pm

    @gene108: And I though the statute of limitations on van drivin’ was two weeks?

  67. 67.

    The Audacity of Krope

    June 6, 2025 at 8:22 pm

    @Jay: The first time I was able to renew my registration online, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. No, still in the US.

  68. 68.

    Old School

    June 6, 2025 at 8:22 pm

    @Bupalos:

    The administration wouldn’t bring him back if they didn’t have a plan

    Have we been watching the same Trump administration?

  69. 69.

    trollhattan

    June 6, 2025 at 8:24 pm

    @Jeffro:

    Remember Letraset? I figure they need about 18pt Helvetica on those felonious knuckles.

  70. 70.

    The Audacity of Krope

    June 6, 2025 at 8:24 pm

    @Old School: Concepts of a plan. A scam, perhaps? That’s kind of like a plan.

  71. 71.

    Ramona

    June 6, 2025 at 8:25 pm

    @Bupalos: Spell that as Gandhi! The H comes after the D, not the G.

  72. 72.

    Jay

    June 6, 2025 at 8:38 pm

    @The Audacity of Krope:

    Here, registrations of a vehicle are perpetual. If you bought a Model T in 1920, as long as you didn’t sell it, you are still the registered owner.

    Transferring title has to be done in person.

    Insurance is annual, has to be done in person by the registered owner(s) at an ICBC broker.

    The only “on-line” you can do, is if you only bought “Basic” insurance, you can “top up” your insurance with some Private Insurers online, but again only by the Registered Owner(s) and you need to provide a Drivers Abstract and proof of Basic.

    My guess, is the “van registered to a guy serving a 30 year sentence in a TexAss Prison” is “a van once registered to a guy”.,………………

  73. 73.

    The Audacity of Krope

    June 6, 2025 at 8:42 pm

    @Jay: Here, registrations of a vehicle are perpetual. If you bought a Model T in 1920, as long as you didn’t sell it, you are still the registered owner.

    Wait, then how does the government nickel and dime working folk in lieu of taxing hedge fund managers? Surely this scheme you describe is unaffordable and bad for business.

  74. 74.

    Feebog

    June 6, 2025 at 8:51 pm

    @Jay:  Apparently this guy has been in and out of prison.  And we don’t know if the registration was current or there was insurance.  But anyone can reregister a car or pay insurance for a person in prison.  Not saying this was the case here, I don’t know but those details will come out eventually.

  75. 75.

    Jay

    June 6, 2025 at 9:17 pm

    @The Audacity of Krope:

    GST and PST.

  76. 76.

    The Audacity of Krope

    June 6, 2025 at 9:28 pm

    @Jay: Knew there must be something to target working stiffs. They still do capitalism in Canada, after all.

  77. 77.

    Ramona

    June 6, 2025 at 9:53 pm

    @The Audacity of Krope: Willful obtuseness describes it aptly.

  78. 78.

    Ramona

    June 6, 2025 at 9:54 pm

    @Jeffro: Heheh!

  79. 79.

    WTFGhost

    June 6, 2025 at 9:56 pm

    @The Audacity of Krope: Registration isn’t the same as “new tags for your license plate.” The registration is proof of ownership, the tags show you paid for the correct stamp to show you’re allowed to use your car on public roads (on *private* roads, you don’t need to be licensed, or need valid plates).

    That said, yes, everyone thinks “license and registration” when it’s really license, registration, and current tabs (which should be visible to the stopping officer, so they don’t ask – unless the tabs are missing!).

  80. 80.

    Darkrose

    June 6, 2025 at 10:01 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: I’m very interested! I don’t know much about the partition and I’d like to learn more.

  81. 81.

    sab

    June 6, 2025 at 10:17 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: As an American, all I have read is cursory history books, and Vikram Seth’s book “A Suitable Boy” about a college educated Hindu girl in India on the marriage market soon after Partition.

    ETA Yes I am very interested.

  82. 82.

    rikyrah

    June 6, 2025 at 10:55 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    So lovely🤗🌞

  83. 83.

    pajaro

    June 6, 2025 at 10:57 pm

    @WTFGhost: I guess if you are Mr. Garcia, you would rather take your chances with a trial here than deal with the likely outcome of having been disappeared into a gulag in El Salvador.  So it’s at least a reprieve for him.

    Every time Trump world has to submit their evidence, whatever it is, to a judge and/or jury, there is a chance that someone who isn’t them will decide that that they don’t have a case.  We are better off having judges and courts decide Mr.Garcia’s fate, , even if there are governments who abuse their prosecutorial powers and bring charges they should not.

  84. 84.

    Gloria DryGarden

    June 7, 2025 at 12:42 am

    @schrodingers_cat: esp interested in parallels that remind you of our current situation

  85. 85.

    Gloria DryGarden

    June 7, 2025 at 12:48 am

    Delighted that Abrego Garcia is being returned.
    I don’t trust this trumped up charge Bondi is alleging. I read that Bondi is up for disbarment, some legal colleagues from her not so great past are calling for it.

    I see jd Vance is quoted above. I just watched a YouTube in which he muttered something hateful and dehumanizing about/ to representative Jasmine Crockett, during a hearing about some policy, and she paused and made a point of getting it on the record, pointing out that it was uncivil and dehumanizing and it was absurd that these things often get overlooked and let go. Therefore, noting his tone in the above quote, I am deciding that nothing he says can hold up.

  86. 86.

    Cathie from Canada

    June 7, 2025 at 2:24 am

    Off Topic message to Annie Laurie  —  regarding the problem with Blue Sky embeds, I just found that they moved the “embed post” menu item. It is now under the “share” box menu, instead of the three dots menu.  Hope this helps!

  87. 87.

    Mel

    June 7, 2025 at 2:29 am

    I notice that Bondi says that the alleged traffickers supposedly smuggled “humans and children and women” – because, of course, only men are “human”.

  88. 88.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    June 7, 2025 at 2:32 am

    I suspect that the Trump maladministration did this for several reasons:

    1.  They believe that returning Kilmar to the United States will render moot all the court cases challenging the constitutionality of the deportation to the El Salvador gulag, the potential contempt charges against high-level government officials for deporting Kilmar in defiance of court orders and refusing to follow court orders to facilitate his return, and more.
    2. They believe that returning Kilmar to the United States will take away the opposition’s ability to use his case as a rallying cry against Republican abuses.

    I’m not sure it’ll work out as well for the Trumpists as they hope.

    And I think I mentioned in a now-dead thread last night that Kilmar will likely be spoiled for choice when it comes to finding a lawyer to defend him against the charges. He’ll be able to secure a much better defense lawyer than anyone in Trump’s orbit could hope to retain for love or money, and he’ll probably also have top-flight representation for the inevitable civil case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia v. United States, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Pamela Bondi, et al.

    (Give me even odds, and I’ll also bet that the retainer’s fee in both cases will be the traditional one dollar.)

  89. 89.

    Nettoyeur

    June 7, 2025 at 3:29 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Remember Deep Throat: “These guys aren’t all that smart, and things got out of hand.”   It is telling that the Tennessee federal prosecutor RESIGNED FROM HIS JOB ather than stake his reputation on this stinker  of of a case.

  90. 90.

    MagdaInBlack

    June 7, 2025 at 4:44 am

    @Mel: Yeah, I caught that too.

  91. 91.

    Anne Laurie

    June 7, 2025 at 8:14 am

    @Cathie from Canada: Thank you!

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