Kilmar Abrego Garcia brought back to US, appears in court on charges of smuggling migrants
abcnews.go.com
Kilmar Abrego Garcia appeared in a Tennessee courtroom Friday, hours after he was brought back to the U.S. to face charges of transporting undocumented migrants.

He made his initial court appearance Friday evening in the Middle District of Tennessee, answering “Yes, I understand” in Spanish when U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes asked him if he understood the charges against him.

Judge Homes set a hearing for June 13, where Abrego Garcia will be arraigned on charges and the judge will take up the government’s motion to hold him in pre-trial detention on the grounds that he “poses a danger to the community and a serious risk of flight” He will remain in federal custody in Tennessee pending next week’s hearing.

“If convicted at trial, the defendant faces a maximum punishment of 10 years’ imprisonment for ‘each alien’ he transported,” said the government’s motion for detention, which also contained an allegation – not included in the indictment – that one of Abrego Garcia’s co-conspirators told authorities that Abrego Garcia participated in the murder of a rival gang member’s mother in El Salvador.

  • workerONE@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    17 days ago

    “he was brought back to the United States to face criminal charges for allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the U.S.”

    So he is charged with “transporting” migrants within the US? Buses and Ubers also transport people. There’s a big difference between transporting someone against their will and transporting someone who wants to go somewhere.

    • Lovstuhagen@hilariouschaos.comOPMEnglish
      12·
      15 days ago

      This is kind of interesting.

      … If I give a ride as an Uber driver to someone who just walked off with $500 they stole and have no knowledge that they did so, I do not think I can be charged with a crime… However, if I was the getaway driver for someone who just walked off with $500 they stole, and I am in on the plan, I am an accomplice…

      I think there is also some precedent for this - as in, it is a practice for people to be facilitating undocumented immigration without ever crossing boundaries and just moving people within the state.

      I recollected this from another case:

      A deputy noted in his report that he pulled over a black van on April 29 at 5:21 a.m. in the Eagle Pass area. He learned that Avshalom Cohen was the driver. While searching the vehicle, the deputy found eight undocumented migrants, a smoke bomb, a loaded gun, a 9mm 50-round drum, and a police badge.

      According to the incident report, Avshalom Cohen told the deputy that he did not know the people he was transporting were undocumented. The deputy searched his phone and found messages “with an unknown subject instructing him to pick up at said location and to drop off in other locations.”

      ABC13

      • workerONE@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        15 days ago

        And is feeding people a crime too? Does every restaurant and hotel need to check immigration status so they do not become accomplices?