Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland construction operative, entered a plea of not guilty to charges of human smuggling in a Tennessee federal court, with his legal team positing that the indictment represents a tendentious attempt to retroactively legitimise his erroneous deportation to El Salvador in March, an action precipitated and subsequently redressed by a Supreme Court mandate amidst escalating scrutiny; Abrego Garcia's defense counsel impugned the veracity of government witnesses, alleging their collaboration was incentivised by *quid pro quo* immigration concessions, these charges stemming from a 2022 traffic interdiction in Tennessee wherein Abrego Garcia was transporting nine passengers, a circumstance that, albeit arousing suspicion of illicit trafficking, initially resulted only in a verbal admonishment; prior to the arraignment, U.S. attorneys characterised Abrego Garcia as a menace to the community and a potential fugitive, levelling accusations of narcotics and firearms trafficking, as well as the exploitation of female transmigrants, allegations which ultimately precipitated the resignation of Ben Schrader, erstwhile chief of the criminal division at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee.