Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Maryland resident 'wrongly' deported to El Salvador by Trump admin?

29-year-old Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a resident of Maryland, finds himself at the center of a contentious legal and diplomatic storm. Garcia was deported to El Salvador from the US the US in March despite the court barring such a move. His deportation has prompted a legal showdown over the administration's immigration policy.

Judges have already ruled Abrego Garcia was deported in error and that the US government should help "facilitate" his return to his home in Maryland. But the White House has accused Abrego Garcia of being a member of the transnational Salvadorian gang MS-13.

MS-13 is a designated foreign terrorist organisation. The Trump administration has said that he "will never live" in the US again.Abrego Garcia denies he is a member of the gang and he has not been convicted of any crime.


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Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia?

Abrego Garcia was born in July 1995 in Los Nogales, El Salvador. From a young age, he helped his family run a small business making pupusas, a beloved local dish, according to NBC News. However, his early years were marked by fear and instability due to ongoing threats and extortion from local gangs. In search of safety, he crossed the U.S. border in 2012 at just 16 years old and eventually joined his brother, a U.S. citizen, in Maryland.

In Maryland, Garcia began to establish a new life. He married a U.S. citizen, became a devoted father to three children (including two stepchildren), and found steady work in the construction industry as a sheet metal apprentice, where he also became a member of a local trade union.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia was living in Maryland with his wife and three children when he was deported to El Salvador, reported NBC News. Garcia who had lived in Maryland for 13 years has now been locked up in a notorious megaprison.

The administration has called his incarceration there an “administrative error.” His wife and attorney deny the accusations against him and have been fighting for his return. The claims that he has alleged links to MS-13 gang, however, have never been substantiated in court, and no criminal charges have been brought against him in the US to date.

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His wife and attorney say he is a loving father and husband. He has never been charged with or convicted of a crime in the United States, records show. He has acknowledged entering the United States illegally in 2012, the court documents show.

Trump administration officials have pushed back against bringing him back, arguing it is up to El Salvador. Trump administration officials said he was deported based on a 2019 accusation from Maryland police he was an MS-13 gang member. Abrego Garcia denied the allegation and was never charged with a crime, his attorneys said.

Arrest in 2019

In March 2019 he was detained along with three other people in Hyattsville, Maryland, in the car park of a Home Depot, according to BBC.

Officers from the Prince George's County Police Department stated that the men were "loitering" and later identified Abrego Garcia and two others as alleged members of the MS-13 gang. Their observations were documented in a report titled the "Gang Field Interview Sheet."

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According to the report, Abrego Garcia was wearing a "Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie featuring images of rolled-up money obscuring the eyes, ears, and mouth of presidents on various denominations."

The officers asserted that this attire was "indicative of Hispanic gang culture," and claimed that "wearing the Chicago Bulls hat signifies membership in good standing with MS-13," despite a misspelling in the report.

After weeks of outcry and no trace of Abrego Garcia, he was temporarily released from prison on April 17 to meet with Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland.

Abrego Garcia was shown in a photo wearing a button-down short-sleeved shirt and cap, sitting at a table with the senator. It is unclear what the two discussed, but Van Hollen said he called Abrego Garcia’s wife “to pass along his message of love.”

“His conversation with me was the first communication he'd had with anybody outside of prison since he was abducted. He said he felt very sad about being in a prison because he had not committed any crimes,” said Van Hollen.

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Van Hollen later described the deportation as an “illegal abduction,” and added that Abrego Garcia had “experienced trauma,” according to NBC News.

Shortly after the meeting, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele confirmed that Abrego Garcia would remain incarcerated, stating he had been examined and found to be in good health.

What are the other allegations against him?

Kilmar Abrego Garcia has previously faced at least two other allegations of criminal conduct, though neither resulted in a conviction, reports BBC.

In 2021, his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, filed a petition for a protective order, alleging that he had physically assaulted her on multiple occasions, according to documents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

In a statement issued on April 16, Vasquez Sura explained that she ultimately chose not to pursue the court case, and that she and her husband "were able to work through this situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling." She described Abrego Garcia as "a loving partner and father," and has consistently denied claims that he is affiliated with the MS-13 gang.

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On April 15, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Abrego Garcia of being involved in human trafficking. Her remarks appeared to reference a report by The Tennessee Star, a conservative outlet, which stated that Abrego Garcia had been stopped by a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer in December 2022 on suspicion of human trafficking.

According to a Department of Homeland Security report, he was pulled over for speeding and failing to maintain his lane. The officer became suspicious when he observed eight other individuals in the vehicle, none of whom had luggage. However, no criminal charges were filed against Abrego Garcia.

"Kilmar worked in construction and sometimes transported groups of workers between job sites, so it's entirely plausible he would have been pulled over while driving with others in the vehicle," said his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, regarding the incident.