For a visual account of the 2022 traffic stop, you can view the released body-camera footage here:

Abrego Garcia entered the U.S. illegally in 2011 at the age of 16, fleeing gang threats in El Salvador. In 2019, an immigration judge granted him withholding of removal due to the danger he faced from gang violence if returned to El Salvador, allowing him to live and work legally in the U.S. He settled in Maryland with his American wife and children, all of whom have special needs. Despite this, the Trump administration unlawfully sent him in March 2025 to El Salvador’s high-security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), violating a 2019 court order that protected him from deportation due to potential gang persecution. This action sparked legal challenges, and the Supreme Court ordered his return, criticizing the government’s violation of due process.

2022 Tennessee Traffic Stop

The charges against Abrego Garcia stem from a November 30, 2022, traffic stop in Tennessee. He was pulled over for speeding on I-40 by the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Officers found eight other individuals in his vehicle, none of whom had luggage, and all listed the same home address as Abrego Garcia. These factors led officers to suspect human trafficking. However, after consulting with federal authorities, the officers issued no speeding ticket and allowed Abrego Garcia to continue with only a warning about an expired driver’s license.

Indictment and Legal Proceedings

On May 21, 2025, a federal grand jury in Tennessee indicted Abrego Garcia on two felony charges: conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal aliens for financial gain and unlawful transportation of illegal aliens. The indictment was unsealed on June 6, 2025, after his return to U.S. custody. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the charges, alleging that Abrego Garcia was involved in a decade-long operation smuggling thousands of undocumented migrants, including women, children, and members of the MS-13 gang, across the U.S.

Controversy and Legal Debate

Abrego Garcia’s attorney contends that there is no evidence of a crime from the traffic stop footage and asserts that he deserves a fair trial. The case has become emblematic of due process concerns and has highlighted tensions between the executive and judiciary over immigration enforcement. Despite denials by Abrego Garcia and judicial rulings in his favor, the Trump administration persisted in depicting him as a gang member, citing dubious evidence.

Current Status

Abrego Garcia is currently in U.S. custody, awaiting trial on the human trafficking charges. If convicted, he is expected to be returned to El Salvador upon resolution of his case. His situation continues to draw national attention, raising questions about immigration policy, legal rights, and the treatment of individuals within the U.S. justice system.

June 6, 2025

Democracy Forward President & CEO Skye Perryman: “Disappearing people into foreign black sites is unAmerican. It is not immigration policy—it’s an abuse of power typical of autocratic regimes and a direct violation of the U.S. Constitution, federal law, and human rights.”

Washington, D.C. – On Thursday, Democracy Forward filed a first of its kind lawsuit challenging the Trump-Vance administration’s black site agreement with El Salvador to disappear people from the United States. This comes after a federal appeals court found that the removal of individuals under the Aliens Enemies Act to be unlawful. 

The lawsuit is Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights et al. v. U.S. Department of State, et al. and the plaintiff coalition – Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), Immigrant Defenders Law Center, Immigration Equality, and California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice – is represented by Democracy Forward. Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights also represents themselves.

Read the filing here. 

See Coverage Below:

The New York Times: Rights Groups Sue to Overturn Agreement That Sends U.S. Immigrants to Salvadoran Jail

For the past few months, immigrants around the country have been suing the Trump administration at a furious pace, seeking to stop it from deporting them to a prison in El Salvador under an agreement reached this year between the White House and Nayib Bukele, the Salvadoran president.

The cases, which have been filed in at least six states, have largely focused on the legal tool that Trump officials have been using to expel them from the country: an 18th century wartime law called the Alien Enemies Act.

But on Thursday, a group of immigrant rights organizations and criminal defense lawyers took a different approach to stopping the deportations to El Salvador. They filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to invalidate the underlying agreement between the U.S. and Salvadoran governments by declaring it unlawful.

“Disappearing people into foreign black sites is un-American,” said Skye Perryman, the president and chief executive of Democracy Forward, a nonprofit legal group that helped file suit. “It is not immigration policy — it’s an abuse of power.”

Associated Press: Immigrant Rights Groups Sue to Invalidate Trump Administration’s El Salvador Prison Deal

A coalition of immigrant rights groups on Thursday sued to invalidate the Trump administration’s deal to house detainees in a notorious prison in El Salvador, saying the arrangement to move migrant detainees outside the reach of U.S. courts violates the U.S. Constitution.

The lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., notes that the administration has argued that those sent to El Salvador are beyond the reach of U.S. courts and no longer have access to due process rights or other U.S. constitutional guarantees.

The suit was filed by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, Immigrant Equality, the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice and Democracy Forward, which is co-counsel in a separate lawsuit over the initial flights to El Salvador.

Bloomberg: Trump Faces New Lawsuit Over Migrants Sent to Salvadoran Prison

The Trump administration is facing a new legal challenge to its arrangement with El Salvador to send migrants — and potentially US citizens — to a mega-prison infamous for its dangerous and unsanitary conditions.

The case, filed in federal court in Washington, is the first to directly target the State Department’s agreement to pay millions of dollars to house people arrested in the United States in El Salvador’s prison system, including the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, known as CECOT.

“Disappearing people into foreign black sites is unAmerican,” Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, one of the groups that brought the case, said in a statement. “It is not immigration policy — it’s an abuse of power typical of autocratic regimes and a direct violation of the U.S. Constitution, federal law, and human rights.”

The Hill: State Department Sued Over Trump Deal to House Migrants in El Salvador Prison

A coalition of democracy groups sued the State Department on Thursday, challenging the Trump administration’s agreement with the government of El Salvador to house more than 200 migrants deported to a notorious prison.

The groups, represented by the left-leaning legal organization Democracy Forward, said the government took “unprecedented action” to transport migrants living in the United States “beyond the reach of U.S. law.”

Five groups brought the lawsuit: Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Immigrant Defenders Law Center, Immigration Equality and California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice.

Skye Perryman, Democracy Forward’s president and CEO, called the practice “unAmerican” in a statement.

“Our lawsuit makes clear: No president — past or present — can buy their way out of the Constitution to disappear people behind a paywall of impunity,” she said.

– # # # – 

Democracy Forward Foundation is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org. 

Beaten into Confession?

Do you think these two photos show the same person? Both images show a visible mark on the head. I’ve heard accounts from women on the flight that men were being struck on the head with batons to force them into signing statements admitting they were gang members. Could this corroborate what the women stated?

Psalm 34:19 states that “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

Viewed the video and noticed that some of the names are not matching what the CBS List reported, and it goes beyond the regular confusion of having 2 last names. Is it Leandro Herado Zambrano or Leandro Hurtado, or is there another Leandro that we don’t know about? The CBS list has Mendoz Nunez, Carlos but in this video we have a Carlos Mendoza with an ‘a’. The CBS List has Primoschitz Gonzalez, Albert but the video has his last name as Primoschizt.
Assuming the family has the correct spelling and the US Government has the wrong spellings for the guys that they have sent to CECOT. If so, what a major embarrassment for us. If we are going to claim that they are gang members shouldn’t we at least have the correct spellings of their names?

Después de revisar el video, noté varias discrepancias en los nombres en comparación con la lista de CBS, y esto va más allá de la confusión habitual con los apellidos compuestos. ¿Es Leandro Herado Zambrano o Leandro Hurtado? ¿O estamos hablando de otro Leandro completamente diferente? La lista de CBS muestra a Mendoz Núñez, Carlos, pero en el video aparece como Carlos Mendoza. También figura Primoschitz González, Albert, pero en el video su apellido está escrito como ‘Primoschizt’.

Si asumimos que las familias tienen la ortografía correcta y que fue el gobierno de EE. UU. quien se equivocó, esto es sumamente vergonzoso. Si vamos a etiquetar a estos hombres como miembros de pandillas, lo mínimo que podemos hacer es escribir bien sus nombres.