AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

We turn now for an update on Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father who was wrongfully sent to a maximum-security mega-prison in El Salvador in March, now facing federal charges in Tennessee, after being returned to the U.S. last week. A two-count indictment, unsealed Friday in Nashville, alleges Abrego Garcia was illegally transporting undocumented immigrants within the United States. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the charges. In an unusual move, she also described allegations against Abrego Garcia that were not in the indictment, and seemed flustered when questioned about this by Wall Street Journal reporter Sadie Gurman.

SADIE GURMAN: Maybe I misunderstood you, but you were mentioning, you know, that he had some involvement in these — in a murder, you know, or was connected to groups that had — you know, involved with this other smuggling ring. But to be clear, the only charges he’s facing right now are the, like, you know, human smuggling charges, just this —

ATTORNEY GENERAL PAM BONDI: Yeah.

SADIE GURMAN: That’s the one offense. But the other things that you have talked about are not actually in the indictment?

ATTORNEY GENERAL PAM BONDI: No, co-conspirators allege that. And we were clear to say that. He is charged with — it’s not only — very serious charges of alien smuggling. And again, there were children involved in that. You know, human trafficking, not only in our country, but in our world, is very, very real.

AMY GOODMAN: A hearing set for Friday will determine whether Kilmar Abrego Garcia will remain in custody.

For more, we’re joined by Chris Newman, a lawyer for the Kilmar’s family and legal director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, based in Los Angeles.

Thanks so much for being with us. Start off by talking about his case. As I listened to one of his lawyers speaking the other day, he said he learned that Kilmar was in the United States from the media, the way the rest of people learned.

CHRIS NEWMAN: That’s correct. We all did. We are obviously relieved that he is now back in the United States, a little bit closer in proximity to his wife and family. That’s certainly much better than being in, functionally, a black site in El Salvador. But he’s still far away from what we want, which is for him to be freed and returned to his family.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And has his wife or his mother been able to see him now that he’s back in the United States?

CHRIS NEWMAN: They’ve been able to speak to him for the first time. And remember, we didn’t even know if he was alive after April 17th. The last time that, you know, we had heard from him was through Senator Van Hollen, when he and I went to El Salvador, and we were able to, you know, briefly get proof of life and make sure that his health was OK. He wasn’t aware of all the allegations that were being hurled at him by the president of the United States, by all of the legal accusations against him. And then, after that, we had no contact. No one had contact with him. But, thankfully, Jennifer is now able to at least talk to him by phone, and hopefully we’ll be able to see him soon.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And can you talk about the significance of these federal charges in Tennessee that have been unsealed?

CHRIS NEWMAN: Well, they have to be treated with the highest amount of suspicion, given the unprecedented amount of defamation and disinformation that has been directed at Kilmar and his family. You know, I went to law school 20 years ago. I studied history. Never have I ever heard of or am aware of a case where the president of the United States has been as invested in the criminal prosecution of an individual person. I think it’s astonishing. I think we’re going to have to fight very, very hard to make sure that he gets a fair trial, given the extent to which, you know, the court of public opinion has been, for example, tainted by all of the really, truly awful things that have been said by the president and his cronies.

AMY GOODMAN: Chris Newman, you’re also the legal director of NDLON, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, in Los Angeles. And I’m wondering if you could make a connection between — I mean, we’re seeing the protests, but we see much less of immigrants being arrested and hauled away, or how many across this country are now being jailed, from Los Angeles to Dallas, from Phoenix to Chicago. If you can make a connection between what happened to Kilmar and what’s happening on the streets right now of L.A.? And particularly talk about the focus, as Kilmar was, on day laborers, even unions coming out to support Kilmar, and going down, union leaders, to see him, try to be able to visit him in the Salvadoran prison, before he was moved back here.

CHRIS NEWMAN: Gosh, I’m so happy that you asked me that question, Amy, because the story for Kilmar began when he was seeking work at a Home Depot near his home. He was falsely accused of being a gang member by a corrupt local police, who subsequently was fired and himself pled guilty for misuse of confidential informant information. I’m so grateful to Greg Sargent from The New Republic for unearthing that story. It hasn’t been discussed enough. When he was taken into custody after those false charges of him being a gang member or violent or etc., they said, “Oopsie! We made him a mistake.” But they handed him over to ICE. Now, at this point, it’s important to understand, had there been a sanctuary policy in place of the kind that we have in California, Kilmar never would have been transferred to ICE in the first place. He then won, functionally won, his immigration case, won withholding of removal, got work authorization, joined a union, was bettering his life, when he was then picked up in this alien enemies, you know, sweep and stunt. The attorney, by the way, who admitted mistake in federal court, Erez, is somebody I know, because he was opposing counsel challenging our sanctuary policies in Los Angeles. This guy is a believer. He was a Trump guy. And he admitted mistake. And then, of course, President Bukele then says, “Oopsie!” when he is outside of U.S. airspace.

And I think the nexus, to your point, Amy, is the following. You know, I’ve been down to El Salvador three times in the last month trying to liberate Kilmar. But what people in El Salvador say is that, number one, there are tens of thousands of people in El Salvador in similar situations as Kilmar. No one knows where they are, if they’re alive, what they’re being charged for, why they’re being put in CECOT or other prisons. But, number two, what they said to every single congressman is, “You in the United States need to act fast, because El Salvador is, in essence, the Ghost of Christmas Future for what’s to come in the United States.” In El Salvador, Bukele has become authoritarian. He’s become a fascist. He’s removed all the guardrails. And everyone in El Salvador said, “You all need to work now to preserve the rule of law and the guardrails, because we can see that Trump is, in essence, importing the political technology of President Bukele in El Salvador.”

And what we see in Los Angeles is people trying to protect the innocent the best way that they know how, by going out into the streets. And yes, it’s messy. I’m so grateful that you asked that question of Attorney General Bonta. I really do hope that he investigates the role of Kash Patel and other — you know, it’s hard to even say it, but, like, Dan Bongino, who’s, I don’t know, the number two in command in the FBI. I think it’s very important that we investigate the role of whether or not there are federal agents as provocateurs, because on Fox News, Sean Hannity says that it’s the protesters, immigrants, anarchists throwing bottles. It is equally as likely that there are federal agents that are themselves trying to stoke violence. I’ve seen it before. You know, you know I was counsel on the case challenging S.B. 1070 and challenging Joe Arpaio. That was a common practice, that they would put undercover, plainclothes people to disguise themselves among protesters in order to provoke violence, to then deter protest, because, again, the other message is, if these protests are perceived to be unsafe, then people are deterred from going out and expressing their First Amendment rights.

But, you know, I’m confident, in Los Angeles, we’re not going to fall for that. We, the immigrant rights, the civil rights community, we are going to show the best of Los Angeles, the beauty of Los Angeles. And hopefully, Attorney General Bonta does his part, as well, by investigating the role of the Trump administration in provoking violence.

AMY GOODMAN: Chris Newman, we want to thank you for being with us, legal director of NDLON, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, based in Los Angeles, and lawyer for Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s family.