What we learn about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador

Kilmar Abrego Garcia was residing in Maryland along with his spouse and three youngsters when he was deported to El Salvador, thrusting his case into the middle of a pivotal authorized battle. The Trump administration has accused him of being a member of the Salvadoran MS-13 gang and used that in its justification for deporting him to his residence nation — regardless of a choose’s order from 2019 barring him from being despatched there.  

The daddy of three who had lived in Maryland for 13 years is now being held in a infamous mega-prison. The administration has known as his incarceration there an “administrative error.” His spouse and lawyer deny the accusations towards him and have been combating for his return. They are saying he’s a loving father and husband. He has by no means been charged with or convicted of a criminal offense in the US, information present. 

The authorized battle over his return is ongoing. A federal choose has ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s launch, an order affirmed by the Supreme Court docket, and to supply proof of the actions it has taken to get him again. The administration has since doubled down on its accusations that Abrego Garcia was a gang member and has mentioned that as a result of he’s now in El Salvador, it doesn’t have the authority to convey him again.

After weeks of outcry and no hint of Abrego Garcia, he was briefly launched from jail on April  17 to fulfill with Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland. 

Abrego Garcia was proven in a photograph carrying a button down short-sleeved shirt and cap, sitting at a desk with the senator. It’s unclear what the 2 mentioned, however Van Hollen mentioned he known as Abrego Garcia’s spouse “to move alongside his message of affection.” 

“His dialog with me was the primary communication he’d had with anyone exterior of jail since he was kidnapped,” Van Hollen mentioned. “He mentioned he felt very unhappy about being in a jail as a result of he had not dedicated any crimes.”

Van Hollen instructed reporters that Abrego Garcia has “skilled trauma,” and framed his deportation as an “unlawful abduction.”

After the assembly, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele mentioned that the person will stay in jail, “now that he’s been confirmed wholesome.” 

Bukele, who has championed his nation’s use of mass incarceration, mentioned in a gathering with President Donald Trump on the White Home that he wouldn’t launch Abrego Garcia.  

Because the high-stakes case continues to play out in court docket, right here’s what we learn about Abrego Garcia and the case.  

From El Salvador to Maryland 

Kilmar Abrego Garcia was born in July 1995, within the neighborhood of Los Nogales in El Salvador, in response to court docket filings, the place he helped his household run a enterprise making pupusas, an area delicacies. He has mentioned that he and his household obtained loss of life threats and have been extorted by the native gang Barrio 18. 

He crossed the border illegally close to McAllen, Texas, in March 2012 when he was 16 years outdated, in response to paperwork posted on X by Lawyer Common Pam Bondi. From the border, Abrego Garcia made his strategy to Maryland to dwell along with his brother, who’s a U.S. citizen. 

In 2016, he met his spouse Jennifer Vasquez Sura, who can also be a U.S. citizen. That they had a younger son collectively, and Vasquez Sura has two youngsters from a earlier marriage. Abrego Garcia was a sheet steel apprentice and a member of the native union.  

A 2019 arrest and gang allegations 

Abrego Garcia was arrested in March 2019 in a Residence Depot parking zone in Hyattsville with three different males for “loitering.” His attorneys mentioned he was there on the lookout for day labor work. Police assessed that he was a gang member on the time, in response to arrest paperwork.He had no legal document on the time, which the paperwork additionally state. 

One of many males arrested that day was recognized to the Prince George’s County Police Division as an MS-13 gang member, in response to a doc titled “gang discipline interview sheet.”  

Police interviewed the boys, together with Abrego Garcia. The doc mentioned he was carrying “a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie with rolls of cash overlaying the eyes, ears and mouth of the presidents” on the payments. The officers mentioned such clothes was “indicative of the Hispanic gang tradition.”  

The officers additionally mentioned they consulted with a “previous confirmed and dependable confidential supply,” who “suggested” that Abrego Garcia was an lively gang member who had the moniker “Chele.” 

His attorneys famous Abrego Garcia was not charged and mentioned in court docket paperwork that “there isn’t any dependable proof within the document to help” that he’s a member of MS-13, including that that the allegation “relies on rumour relayed by a confidential supply” and the clothes he was carrying.  

The Prince George’s County Police Division mentioned that a number of members of its gang unit interviewed the 4 males after their arrest. 

Its detectives “had cheap suspicion, primarily based upon their coaching and expertise” to say that three of the boys, together with Abrego Garcia, “displayed traits related to MS-13 gang tradition,” the division mentioned. 

“This was primarily based on tattoos, clothes, in addition to data from a supply,” police mentioned. 

Police didn’t arrest any of the boys, mentioned they haven’t interacted with Abrego Garcia once more and haven’t obtained any new intelligence associated to him. 

One of many detectives who interviewed the boys was former officer Ivan Mendez, who was suspended in April 2019 as a part of an unrelated matter, police mentioned. Mendez pleaded responsible to “Misconduct in Workplace” in that unrelated incident. 

Consequently, the division proposed that Mendez’s employment be terminated, which he accepted, a assertion from police mentioned. Mendez was terminated from the division in December 2022. 

Police recognized two males, considered one of whom was Abrego Garcia, as having been beforehand detained in a homicide investigation, in response to a Division of Homeland Safety doc from 2019. Abrego Garcia denied being related to a homicide investigation, the paperwork say, and he was by no means charged.   

The discharge of paperwork on April 16 was the fullest detailing of the circumstance round his arrest and got here after weeks of strain on administration officers to show its rivalry that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang. 

The Division of Homeland Safety additionally posted on social media that Abrego Garcia’s spouse had obtained  a short lived protecting order towards him in 2021. Vasquez Sura didn’t seem for the listening to and the case was in the end dismissed. She launched an announcement explaining what occurred. 

“After surviving home violence in a earlier relationship, I acted out of warning after a disagreement with Kilmar by in search of a civil protecting order in case issues escalated,” Vasquez Sura mentioned in an announcement Wednesday. “Issues didn’t escalate, and I made a decision to not comply with by means of with the civil court docket course of.”  

“Nobody is ideal, and no marriage is ideal. That isn’t a justification for ICE’s motion of abducting him and deporting him to a rustic the place he was speculated to be shielded from deportation,” she added.  

The administration has additionally accused Abrego Garcia of being concerned in “human trafficking,” however didn’t launch proof of the declare till April 18 when the Division of Homeland Safety launched a report detailing a visitors cease in Tennessee in 2022 the place an officer suspected Abrego Garcia human trafficking whereas driving a car with eight different individuals. 

Abrego Garcia mentioned the boys have been touring for building work, in response to the report. As a result of there was no baggage within the car, the officer on the scene suspected it could possibly be human trafficking, it mentioned. 

The Tennessee Freeway Patrol mentioned in an announcement that in 2022 Abrego Garcia was stopped for dashing on the I-40. The company contacted federal regulation enforcement, who determined to not detain him, the assertion mentioned.  

When the Freeway Patrol ran his license, they found it was expired and there was a observe to name federal authorities due to his alleged affiliation with MS-13 following the incident in 2019, a senior Tennessee regulation enforcement official mentioned.  

When the company known as ICE, it declined to select him up and take him into custody, the official mentioned. He was launched with out fees. 

The interplay between Abrego Garcia and the company was “cordial,” the official mentioned, including that Abrego Garcia mentioned the opposite males within the automobile have been touring between building jobs. 

“Kilmar labored in building and typically transported teams of employees between job websites, so it’s solely believable he would have been pulled over whereas driving with others within the car,” his spouse mentioned in an announcement. “He was not charged with any crime or cited for any wrongdoing. Sadly, Kilmar is at present imprisoned with out contact with the skin world, which suggests he can not reply to the claims or defend himself.”

What was his immigration standing? 

After his 2019 arrest, Abrego Garcia was handed over to immigration authorities and positioned in deportation proceedings.  

Vasquez Sura mentioned she and her husband testified in his protection towards the allegations that he was a gang member and sought his launch, in response to court docket paperwork. She described the method as “emotional and unfair.” 

Regardless of their testimony, a choose denied Abrego Garcia bond after his arrest exterior the Residence Depot, paperwork launched by the Justice Division present. 

“Though the Court docket is reluctant to offer evidentiary weight to the Respondent’s clothes as a sign of gang affiliation, the truth that a ‘previous, confirmed, and dependable supply of knowledge’ verified the Respondent’s gang membership, rank, and gang title is adequate to help that the Respondent is a gang member, and the Respondent has didn’t current proof to rebut that assertion,” Immigration Choose Elizabeth Kessler wrote in 2019. Her determination was upheld by one other choose in an appeals listening to. 

Kessler additionally famous there was a seeming discrepancy relating to why the federal government arrested him. One type said it was in relation to a homicide investigation, she wrote, whereas one other states police approached him “as a result of he and others have been loitering exterior of Residence Depot.” Abrego Garcia responded that “there isn’t any dependable proof within the document to help” that he’s a member of MS-13 and that the allegation “relies on rumour relayed by a confidential supply.” 

Abrego Garcia then filed for asylum and withholding of elimination, a short lived type of authorized safety, in order that he wouldn’t be deported to El Salvador. Earlier than his 2019 listening to, authorities instructed the court docket that their proof of Abrego Garcia’s gang membership was restricted to the “gang discipline interview sheet” from the Residence Depot arrest, they usually had nothing additional so as to add. 

An immigration choose barred Abrego Garcia from being despatched to El Salvador, saying he proved he had a “well-founded worry of future persecution” from native gangs. The court docket granted withholding of elimination so long as he checked in with authorities yearly, one thing he attested to doing in court docket filings. This gave him authorized standing in the US briefly and allowed him to obtain a piece allow.   

ICE didn’t attraction, and Abrego Garcia was launched. He returned to his household, the place he resumed working and commenced a five-year apprenticeship program to turn into a licensed journeyman, his spouse wrote in an affidavit.  

“We actually believed that the false accusations had been cleared up and that they have been behind us,” she wrote. 

Deportation to El Salvador 

On March 12, Abrego Garcia was pulled over whereas he was along with his little one by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on his method residence from a piece website in Baltimore. He was on the cellphone along with his spouse and instructed her he had pulled into the parking zone of an Ikea when an officer “put his lights on.” Abrego Garcia then pulled into the parking zone of an Ikea.  

“I instructed him to place me on speaker when he was speaking with the police as a result of he doesn’t really feel assured talking English,” Jennifer wrote in a declaration offered to the court docket 

When an officer bought to the window of Abrego Garcia’s automobile, in response to Vasquez Sura, they instructed him to roll down the home windows and step out of the car. Abrego Garcia instructed the officer his son was within the backseat and had particular wants. In a sworn declaration, she says officers then hung up the decision, and minutes later known as again, figuring out as somebody with the Division of Homeland Safety, and instructed her she wanted to get there in 10 minutes to select up her son or they might “name little one protecting providers.” 

When she arrived, she mentioned Abrego Garcia was on the curb in handcuffs, and officers on the scene claimed his “immigration standing had modified,” Vasquez Sura wrote. 

“They requested me if I wished to say goodbye to Kilmar,” Jennifer wrote. “Kilmar was crying and I instructed him he would come again residence as a result of he hadn’t carried out something unsuitable.” 

He was arrested by immigration authorities, and was transferred to services in Maryland, Louisiana and Texas, the declaration mentioned. Throughout that point, Abrego Garcia spoke on the cellphone along with his spouse 5 occasions. On March 15, he was despatched to El Salvador. 

“I by no means heard from Kilmar once more,” Vasquez Sura wrote. 

On March 16, the Salvadoran president posted a video displaying individuals being loaded off planes and despatched to the CECOT mega-prison. Vasquez Sura mentioned she acknowledged her husband in pictures, and video from the jail the place he was being dragged by guards, due to the scars on his head and tattoos.  

On March 24, 2025, Vasquez Sura filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of her husband towards the Trump administration within the District of Maryland. The swimsuit argued that due to the 2019 order barring him from being despatched to El Salvador, the Trump administration violated the regulation. 

Abrego Garcia’s workforce requested a choose to order the federal government to instantly request his launch, launching the continuing authorized battle over whether or not he’ll stay in a Salvadoran jail or return to Maryland.