‘He’s going to wish he had been deported’

Alan Dershowitz appeared on Newsmax Friday to discuss Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States, where he now faces criminal charges related to human smuggling.

Abrego Garcia, a deported Salvadoran national accused of domestic abuse and suspected MS-13 gang ties, returned to the U.S. to face criminal charges for allegedly smuggling illegal migrants, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday. During an appearance on “The Record with Greta Van Susteren,” Dershowitz said Garcia’s choice may prove costly, as he faces the likelihood of a lengthy prison sentence if convicted.

“I think it was a big mistake for him and his supporters to try to bring him back to the country,” Dershowitz said. “He’ll regret that. He’d have been a lot better off if he had made the following motion, if he had said ‘Look I’m deportable, and I don’t want to come back into the country.’”

Dershowitz added that Garcia’s best chance for freedom would have been to accept deportation to a safer country. He specifically mentioned Argentina as a potential destination that could have avoided the risks associated with returning to the U.S.

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“‘Just don’t send me to a country that poses danger. Send me to Argentina.’ He might have won that case, and he would be a free man. Now he’s going to, if he’s convicted, spend a lot of time in prison, and he’s going to wish he had been deported,” Dershowitz said.

Dershowitz said Garcia’s supporters might not have served his best interests by encouraging him to come back to the country.

“When backers support people, they don’t always serve the best interest of people. Because they have a narrative. They have an ideology that they’re serving. The best interests of this man probably would have been served by not coming back to the country,” Dershowitz said.

In March, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents apprehended Abrego Garcia and subsequently deported him to El Salvador, where he was initially placed in the Terrorism Confinement Center, a high-security facility designed for gang members. The deportation sparked outrage among Democrats, who said it was unjustified, citing his prior protection under withholding of removal granted by an immigration judge. Democratic Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen visited El Salvador to push for his return, followed by a group of House Democrats who supported the same cause.

The Trump administration has consistently defended Abrego Garcia’s deportation, pointing to local law enforcement concerns in Maryland about his possible MS-13 affiliation and prior domestic abuse allegations from his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura.

In 2022, Abrego Garcia was stopped by the Tennessee Highway Patrol on suspicion of human smuggling after officers discovered he was transporting eight passengers without any visible luggage. The vehicle he was driving belonged to Jose Ramon Hernandez-Reyes, an undocumented migrant sentenced to prison for human smuggling in 2020.

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