Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation to El Salvador became a political flashpoint in the Trump administration's stepped-up immigration enforcement, has been returned to the United States to face criminal charges related to what federal authorities say was a massive human smuggling operation that brought immigrants into the country illegally.

“This is what American justice looks like,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday in announcing the return of Abrego Garcia and the criminal charges.

He is expected to be prosecuted in the U.S. and, if convicted, will be returned to his home country in El Salvador at the conclusion of the case, officials said Friday.

The charges stem from a 2022 vehicle stop in which the Tennessee Highway Patrol suspected him of human trafficking. A rep

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