(The Center Square) – Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being returned from a Salvadoran maximum security prison to the United States, where he will face criminal charges.

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced late Friday afternoon that the suspected MS-13 gang member had been indicted by a grand jury in Tennessee on May 21, charging him with “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,” Bondi said. “Upon completion of his sentence, we anticipate he will be returned to his home country of El Salvador.”

Bondi added that the grand jury found that he was involved in “over 100” operations smuggling “thousands of illegal aliens.”

Controversy has surrounded Abrego Garcia since March, when the Trump administration mistakenly deported him to El Salvador due to an administrative error. Prior to that, Abrego Garcia was living in Maryland and had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in MS-13 in 2019, after immigrating illegally to the United States as a teenager with his parents around 2011. Officials prepared to deport Abrego Garcia then, but an immigration judge granted him “withholding of removal,” believing his life would be in danger if he were returned to El Salvador. 

But it was a later traffic stop in Tennessee that led to Abrego Garcia’s charges that were announced Friday. The Center Square previously reported that Garcia was stopped by Tennessee troopers for speeding in 2022. He was driving an SUV with eight passengers, and one of the officers believed that he was smuggling them, remarking that he was “hauling these people for money.”

Despite these brush-ups with the law and his wife filing for a protection order against him in 2020, Abrego Garcia was never charged with anything in the U.S. until the freshly announced indictment. 

A federal court judge in April issued an order saying the administration had to “facilitate and effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S., and the Supreme Court partially upheld that order days later, ordering the administration to “effectuate” his return. Despite acknowledging its error, the administration has refused – until Friday – to return Abrego Garcia to the United States, claiming it possessed ample evidence that he was a dangerous man and a “convicted member” of MS-13. 

Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen visited Abrego Garcia in prison in El Salvador in April, and several other Democratic lawmakers also previously traveled there to advocate for his return, arguing that he was denied due process and the Trump administration was flouting judicial orders.

(The Center Square) – A group of House Republicans has called on Gov. Greg Abbott to veto a Democratic-authored bill related to expanding state-funded loan repayment programs for a range of mental health professionals.

SB 646 filed by state Sen. Royce, West, D-Dallas, would amend state law to expand and increase financial assistance provided through the Mental Health Professionals Loan Repayment Program.

It would increase the amount of loan repayments for physician psychiatrists, licensed clinical social workers, professional counselors, advanced practice registered nurses and a wide range of licensed social workers and counselors, according to the bill analysis. It also would increase the amount of awards to those who speak languages other than English and for those who practice in rural areas. It also allocates $1 million to the MHPLRP for advertising.

The majority of House Republicans, 58, voted against it. Thirty-four of them called on the governor to veto the bill.

The bill “expands a Biden style student loan repayment program,” House Republicans, led by Rep. Brent Money, wrote in a letter to the governor. “58 republican members voted against this bill and in opposition to student loan repayment programs. There are many laudable things that the legislature funds and expands during the session but few that received such significant opposition as SB 646. We humbly ask that you veto this legislation and in so doing encourage the legislature to make ‘loan repayment programs’ and their expansion something we have to avoid in future sessions.”

West argued the program was necessary to help more mental health professionals enter the field “given Texas’ stark shortage of mental health professionals.” The existing program isn’t helping meeting the shortfall, he says, which “remains critical.”

Of Texas’ 254 counties, 168 don’t ‘have any licensed psychiatrists; 147 don’t have any psychologists; 91 don’t have licensed clinical social workers; 78 don’t have licensed chemical dependency counselors; 41 don’t have licensed professional counselors; 211 don’t have psychiatric-mental health advanced practice registered nurses (as of 2019 data) and 148 school districts don’t have any school counselors, according to the bill analysis.

Earlier in the week, a group of 41 House Republicans called on Abbott to veto a bill they argue will only help increase property taxes, The Center Square reported.

SB 974, filed by state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, passed the legislature with bipartisan support. It would allow school board members and school district employees to serve on appraisal review boards, the entities responsible for assessing property tax appraisal challenges.

Those who voted against it argue it “establishes a clear conflict of interest … An employee who is paid by a school district should not be involved in the processes of determining the value of property that is taxed to generate funding for the district.”

Abbott previously vetoed similar legislation in the last legislative session.

(The Center Square) – A fifth case of measles occurred in Georgia, the state Department of Public Health said on Friday.

The unvaccinated individual contracted the disease from a person who acquired it from out of the country, according to a release. That case was reported to the health department in May.

Six confirmed measles cases were reported in all of 2024,according to the department.

The Health Department said the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is safe and recommended it.

“More than 95% of the people who receive a single dose of MMR will develop immunity to all three viruses,” the department said. “A second dose boosts immunity, typically enhancing protection to 98%.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said as of June 5, 24 states had confirmed measles cases this year and three people have died. Ninety-five percent of the cases occurred in people who were not vaccinated, the agency said.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was quoted as being skeptical of the measles vaccine but said in an April post on social media, “The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine.”

Kennedy made his comments during a visit to Texas, where the death of two young girls was attributed to measles.