Kilmar Abrego Garcia pleads not guilty to human trafficking charges

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is expected to appear in court following his return to the United States on Friday
Kilmar Abrego Garcia returns to the United States facing federal charges; the 29 year old is expected to appear a Tennessee court Friday evening
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported earlier this year by the Trump administration, has pleaded not guilty to charges to human smuggling charges during an arraignment in federal court in Tennessee.
Abrego Garcia was arraigned on human trafficking and conspiracy charges in a federal court in Nashville Friday morning.
What they're saying:
Before the hearing began in Nashville, Abrego Garcia’s wife told a crowd outside a church that Thursday marked three months since the Trump administration "abducted and disappeared my husband and separated him from our family."
Jennifer Vasquez Sura said she saw her husband for the first time on Thursday. She said, "Kilmar wants you to have faith," and asked the people supporting him and his family "‘to continue fighting, and I will be victorious because God is with us.’"
The backstory:
Abrego Garcia was brought back from El Salvador last Friday to face charges for alien smuggling and conspiracy to commit alien smuggling.
"The grand jury found that over the past nine years Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring. They found this was his full-time job, not a contractor. He was a smuggler of humans and children and women. He made over 100 trips," said Attorney General Pam Bondi last week.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia back in the US, faces criminal charges
Kilmar Abrego Garcia has landed back in the U.S., now facing charges in Tennessee for transporting illegal aliens.
Prosecutors allege Garcia conspired to transport individuals illegally into the U.S. for money, including suspected MS-13 associates and others who cross the border and were in the U.S. illegally -- dating back to 2016. He is also accused of involvement in the murder of a gang member’s mother in El Salvador, though the indictment does not formally charge him with that crime.
Abrego Garcia is a 29-year-old El Salvadorian national. He fled his home country and came to the U.S. when he was 16. He has since lived in Maryland. He has three children and a wife, Jennifer Vasquez.
On March 12, Abrego Garcia was arrested in Baltimore after working a shift as a sheet metal apprentice and picking up his 5-year-old son, who has autism and other disabilities, from his grandmother’s house, according to his lawyers.
He was then sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT which activists say is rife with abuses. Three days later, he was deported.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement say they removed him to a Salvadoran prison over a 2019 accusation that he was in the MS-13 gang.
Abrego Garcia's ties to MS-13 were never proven and he has repeatedly denied being a gang member. His lawyers argue that the U.S. government "has never produced an iota of evidence" that he is affiliated with MS-13 or any other street gang.
His eventual expulsion to El Salvador violated a U.S. immigration judge’s order in 2019 that shielded him from deportation to his native country. The judge ruled that Abrego Garcia had credible fears of being killed if he returned to El Salvador.
Abrego-Garcia has no criminal record in the U.S. outside of a few traffic violations. He had regularly checked in with immigration authorities.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials later admitted in a court filing that his deportation was due to an "administrative error" but the Trump administration has since maintained that there is nothing they can do to bring him back.
The Source: This story includes reporting from FOX News, the Associated Press and previous FOX 5 DC reporting.