By VICTORIA CHURCHILL, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

Published: 16:14 BST, 8 June 2025 | Updated: 17:16 BST, 8 June 2025

President Donald Trump told NBC News that it was the decision of the Department of Justice to return to the United States Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who had been wrongfully deported to El Salvador in March.

During a Saturday phone interview with NBC News’ Kristen Welker, Trump was asked what went into his decision to bring Garcia back.

‘Well, that wasn’t my decision. The Department of Justice decided to do it that way, and that’s fine, as far as — there are two ways you could have done it, and they decided to do it that way,’ Trump told Welker.

‘I think for speed, and, you know, it should be a very easy case,’ Trump continued.

Welker then further pressed the Commander in Chief, asking, ‘you think, you think he’s going to be convicted– you think it’s going to be an easy case?’

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‘I think it should be. It should be. You have two different cases. This would go faster,’ Trump replied.

Welker then asked Trump what he thought of Democrats who advocated for Garcia’s return, including Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who made a public case for Garcia being denied due process.

‘He’s a loser. The guy’s a loser. They’re going to lose because of that same thing. That’s not what people want to hear,’ Trump responded.

‘He’s trying to defend a man who’s got a horrible record of abuse, abuse of women in particular. No, he’s a total loser– this guy,’ Trump concluded.

 

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‘He’s a loser. The guy’s a loser’ President Donald Trump said of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a ‘Maryland man’ who has been returned to the United States after being deported to El Salvador in March

US Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) holding a meeting with Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a US resident wrongfully deported to his home country, at a hotel in San Salvador on April 17, 2025

Documents made public by the Department of Justice show that Garcia ‘was validated as a member of the Mara Salvatrucha (MSl3) Gang’ in 2019, also noting at the time that he did not claim  ‘fear of returning to his country.’

This undated photo provided by CASA, an immigrant advocacy organization, in April 2025, shows Kilmar Abrego Garcia

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During a press conference that took place Friday as Garcia was returning to the United States, Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi announced a series of charges against Garcia, who was allegedly part of an international smuggling ring.

‘Over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring,’ Bondi noted Friday.

‘They found this was his full time job, not a contractor. He was a smuggler of humans and children and women,’ Bondi continued. 

Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche held a news conference about Kilmar Abrego Garcia at the Justice Department, Friday June 6, 2025, in Washington

‘Over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring,’ Bondi noted Friday

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A CBS News poll released Sunday showed that 54% of respondents approved of the Trump Administration’s program to deport immigrants in the United States illegally. 

53% of poll respondents said they believed that the Administration is prioritizing the deportation of dangerous criminals.

Notably, CBS News also found that 55% of poll respondents liked the overall goals of Trump’s deportation program, while 56% disliked his approach to the deportations.

A Spring Grove man was killed in a three-vehicle crash Friday morning in Maryland. 

According to a Maryland State Police statement, Nicholas Standiford, 25, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, which occurred around 7:48 a.m. on the Hampstead Bypass, or Maryland Route 30, in Carroll County, Maryland. 

Standiford was the driver of a Chevrolet pickup truck that was involved in the crash. 

Maryland State Police said a preliminary investigation showed that a Ford pickup truck was traveling south on Maryland Route 30 when, for unknown reasons, it traveled into the northbound lanes, striking a Chevrolet dump truck. That collision caused the dump truck to strike the Chevrolet pickup truck. 

MORE: ‘Terrible mistake’: Nolan Grove testifies about shooting 12-year-old friend Kain Heiland

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MORE: Chance of rain in York County over next several days

A passenger in the Chevrolet dump truck, whose identification is being withheld pending next of kin notification, was pronounced dead after being transported by ambulance to Carroll Hospital Center. 

The driver and another passenger in the dump truck and the driver of the Ford pickup truck were flown by Maryland State Police Aviation Command to a hospital for treatment of their injuries. Their conditions were not immediately known. 

Lanes on Maryland Route 30 were closed for approximately five hours while the investigation into the crash was being conducted, police said. 

Maryland State Police stated that the investigation into the crash is ongoing. 

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Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man at the center of a bitter, months-long political and legal fight after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, has been returned to the United States to face criminal charges, according to an indictment announced Friday.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced his return and the indictment at a press conference at the Department of Justice.

“This is what American justice looks like,” Bondi said.

She thanked Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele for agreeing to send Abrego Garcia back

Bondi told reporters that a federal grand jury indicted Abrego Garcia on May 21 in Tennessee over allegations he conspired to transport thousands of migrants without legal status from Texas across the U.S. between 2016-2025. The two-count indictment accuses Abrego Garcia “of conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal aliens for financial gain” and “unlawful transportation of illegal aliens for financial gain.”

Bondi says Abrego Garcia will face trial in the U.S. on these charges and, if found guilty, will serve time in a U.S. prison before being deported back to El Salvador.

Abrego Garcia’s attorney said they’re going to keep fighting to get him a fair trial. “Now, after months of delay and secrecy, they’re bringing him back, not to correct their error but to prosecute him. This shows that they were playing games with the court all along,” Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, told NPR. “Due process means the chance to defend yourself before you’re punished, not after. This is an abuse of power, not justice.”

A Salvadoran native who had been living with his wife and children in Maryland, Abrego Garcia was deported in March to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution. The Trump administration admitted that it had deported Abrego Garcia due to an “administrative error,” but later defended the move, claiming he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13. His wife and attorneys deny that.

The 10-page criminal indictment unsealed today alleges that Abrego Garcia is “a member and associate of the transnational criminal organization, La Mara Salvatrucha, otherwise known… as MS-13.” The indictment also details that he participated in more than 100 trips smuggling individuals from Texas to Maryland, including unaccompanied minors and alleged members of the Salvadoran gang MS-13.

Abrego Garcia’s deportation case has become a bedrock for both the Trump administration and immigration advocates as the push to streamline deportations undercuts key elements of due process.

After the announcement of Abrego Garcia’s return, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that the indictment “proves the unhinged Democrat Party was wrong, and their stenographers in the Fake News Media were once again played like fools,” adding that the administration would “continue to hold criminals accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

It’s been nearly three months since the father of three children was pulled over in his car by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and ended up imprisoned in El Salvador. Abrego Garcia was arrested on March 12 on his way home from work in Baltimore. He was deported a few days later, along with more than 230 other immigrants, and housed at CECOT. By April 20, according to court documents, Abrego Garcia had been moved to a lower security Salvadoran prison.

Abrego Garcia, who had arrived unlawfully in the U.S., when he was a teenager, had received protection from removal to El Salvador in 2019 by an immigration judge. That protection, known as withholding of removal, had never been challenged by government officials.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who was deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration, speaks with Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., in a hotel restaurant in San Salvador on April 17.

Press Office Senator Van Hollen/via AP

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Press Office Senator Van Hollen/via AP

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland has overseen the months-long legal case over the deportation of Abrego Garcia. Xinis, an Obama-appointed judge, last month ordered the government to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return. The Justice Department repeatedly invoked the state secrets privilege in federal court to withhold information related to three deportation flights to El Salvador, one of which Abrego Garcia was on.

In a 9-0 ruling issued on April 10, the U.S. Supreme Court said that the government “must facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia. But the administration refused to bring him back and Salvadoran President Bukele also said he would not release him. . Notably, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., traveled to El Salvador in late April to seek Abrego Garcia’s release. Several other Democrats made their own trips, arguing that the Trump administration was violating due process.

Federal prosecutors have requested that Abrego Garcia be held in “pre-trial custody because he poses a danger to the community and a serious risk of flight.”