Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s membership in MS-13 was a crucial part of his participation in a major migrant smuggling ring, the Trump Justice Department told a federal judge, because it scared the migrants into paying up.
Prosecutors told the judge they want to present evidence about Mr. Abrego Garcia’s gang ties at trial to prove the smuggling case they’ve brought against him.
They also said they will offer as a witness a woman who said Mr. Abrego Garcia exchanged “pornographic messages and videos” with her when he was 25 and she was 15.
Mr. Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant and the subject of a monthslong deportation battle earlier this year, stands accused of migrant smuggling, stemming from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee where authorities say he was caught with illegal immigrants in his vehicle.
He wasn’t charged at the time, but the Trump administration, while finally un-deporting him from El Salvador under pressure from federal courts, reinvestigated the case and won an indictment.
Prosecutors said Mr. Abrego Garcia was used by the smuggling operation to “seek payment from recalcitrant illegal alien passengers who the co-conspirators believed to be gang members.”
“It was the defendant’s gang affiliation, the co-conspirators will testify, that made him the appropriate choice to transport these passengers because the organization had issues collecting fees in the past from gang members,” Jason Harley, the government’s trial attorney, told Judge Waverly Crenshaw in a filing Thursday.
Mr. Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty and has denied being a member of MS-13.
That issue has been the source of intense debate.
An immigration judge in 2019 found Mr. Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13, based on the work of the gang unit in Prince George’s County, Maryland, where he lived.
But a U.S. district judge has discounted the notion, saying the government’s evidence is thin.
Mr. Harley said people who were part of the smuggling operation with Mr. Abrego Garcia are prepared to testify about his gang membership.
He also said he wants to present evidence of Mr. Abrego Garcia’s “abuse of female aliens.”
The lawyer said that grew to be an issue within the smuggling ring because it “affected the bottom line” and “caused a divide” among the crew.
Mr. Harley said he’ll offer cell phone records showing Mr. Abrego Garcia making “numerous” trips between Maryland and Texas in 2022 and 2023, including during the November 2022 trip that sparked the criminal indictment.
The lawyer said they can tie the phone to Mr. Abrego Garcia, among other ways, because his wife listed the number as his in a domestic violence protection order she sought against him in 2020 and a subsequent order that was issued against him in 2021 that also lists the number as his contact.
Mr. Harley acknowledged that evidence could be prejudicial to Mr. Abrego Garcia, but he said it was necessary to show it was he, not his wife, who used that phone.
The lawyer also renewed the government’s contention that Mr. Abrego Garcia exchanged “pornographic” messages with an underage girl.
He said they would call her to the stand and, while they don’t plan to introduce the messages themselves initially, they could be compelled to offer them as rebuttal depending on how Mr. Abrego Garcia’s legal team approaches her testimony.
Mr. Abrego Garcia was sent to El Salvador in March despite an immigration judge’s order that he not be deported to that specific country.
The government is once again trying to deport him, even as it pursues the criminal case.
Mr. Abrego Garcia argues he is the subject of a vindictive prosecution. He has suggested he would accept deportation to Costa Rica, but he is resisting the government’s plan to send him to Liberia.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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