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The story of Kilmar Abrego Garcia begins where he comes from, but it is becoming increasingly unclear where it will end.
The US Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to promote return to the United States from the infamous Salvador prison, and rejected the White House’s claim that Abrego Garcia could not be retrieved after he accidentally expelled him.
Trump administration officials opposed the idea of bringing him back, claiming it belonged to El Salvador. President El Salvador said he had no power to return him and called it “smuggling terrorists into the United States” “absurd.”
Court records show that 29-year-old Abrego Garcia lived in the United States for about 14 years, during which time he built, married and raised three children with disabilities.
Trump administration officials said he was deported based on a 2019 accusation of him being a member of the MS-13 gang, based on a 2019 accusation of him being a member of the MS-13 gang. Abrego Garcia denied the allegations and was never charged with a crime, his lawyer said.
In late 2019, a US immigration judge protected Abrego Garcia from deportation to El Salvador as it was likely that he was faced with persecution there by local gangs who terrorized his family. Anyway, the Trump administration deported him there and later described the mistake as “administrative error,” but claimed he was in MS-13.
Kilmer Abrego Garcia, a sheet metal worker in Maryland, was illegally deported to an infamous prison in El Salvador. Trump administration officials emphasized that he is a citizen of El Salvador and that the United States has no say in his future.
As his case continues in US courts, so far there is Abrego Garcia’s story.
Salvador gang threat
Abrego Garcia grew up in San Salvador’s capital of El Salvador, according to court documents filed in the US Court of Immigration in 2019. His father was a former police officer. His mother, Cecilia, sold Pupusas, a national signature dish of flat tortilla pouches that holds a blend of cheese, beans and flavored pork.
His entire family, including his parents, two sisters and brother, runs the business from their homes, court records say. Abrego Garcia’s job was to buy ingredients from a grocery store and deliver them with his siblings.
“Everyone in town knew to obtain a pupusa from ‘Pupuseria Cecilia’,” his lawyer wrote.
Local gangster Barrio 18 begins to force their families for “rent” and threatens to kill their brother Cesar or push them into their gang. The family followed, but eventually sent Cesar to the US.
According to his immigration case, Barrio 18 similarly targeted Abrego Garcia. When he was 12, the gang threatened to take him away until his father paid “all the money they wanted.” They still watched him come and go to school.
The family moved 10 minutes away, but the gang threatened to rape and kill Abrego Garcia’s sister, court records say. The family closed the business, moved again, and eventually sent Abrego Garcia to the US
According to court applications, the family has never been to authorities due to ramp-delaying police corruption. The gang continued to harass their families after moving to Guatemala, adjacent to El Salvador.
Living in the US
Abrego Garcia illegally fled to the United States around 2011, when he turned 16, according to documents filed in the immigration case. He joined Cesar, now a US citizen of Maryland, and found work in construction.
About five years later, Abrego Garcia met Jennifer Vasquez Sula, a US citizen, records say. In 2018, after learning that she was pregnant, he moved in with her and her two children. They lived in Prince George County, just outside of Washington.
In 2019, Abrego Garcia went to Home Depot looking for work when he was arrested by county police, according to court filings. The detective asked if he was a member of the gang. After explaining that he was not, he was detained by immigration and customs enforcement.
Abrego Garcia later told the immigration judge that he would ask him to release him if he seeks asylum. Vazquez Sula was five months after her high-risk pregnancy.
However, U.S. immigration and customs enforcement claimed he was a certified gang member based on information from a confidential informant used by county police, records say.
In his current case, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers claimed that Abrego Garcia belonged to New York’s MS-13 chapter.
This information was sufficient to keep Abrego Garcia in prison in 2019 as an immigration judge continued his immigration case, court records say. The judge said the informants were proven and reliable, and confirmed their membership and rank of the gang.
Abrego Garcia later married Vasquez Sula at a Maryland detention center, according to court filings. She gave birth while he was still in prison.
In October 2019, an immigration judge denied Abrego Garcia’s request for asylum, but in his case he granted protection from being deported to El Salvador due to “well-founded fear” of gang persecution. He was released and Ice did not appeal.
While Abrego Garcia checks in on the ice every year, the Department of Homeland Security issued him a work permit, his lawyer said in a court application. He joined the union and was hired full-time as a sheet metal apprentice.
In 2021, Vazquez Sula filed a temporary protective order against Abrego Garcia, saying he punched, hurt and tore his shirt during discussion. The details were released by Trump administration officials but were rejected a few weeks later, according to court records.
Vazquez Sula said after the release of the document, the couple had worked “personally as a family, including going to counseling.”
“After surviving domestic violence in a previous relationship, I acted cautiously after my disagreement with Kilmer, seeking a civil protection order in case things escalate,” she said. “Things didn’t escalate. I decided not to follow the civil court process.”
The Centre for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT) is a Megaprison located in Tecolca, El Salvador.
She said the order does not justify his deportation.
“Kilmer has always been a loving partner and father, and I will continue to stand by him and demand justice from him,” she said.
He and Vazquez Sula had raised three children, including a five-year-old son with autism, according to complaints filed against the Trump administration. They also raise a 9 year old with autism and a 10 year old with epilepsy.
Mistakeful deportation
In February, the Trump administration designated MS-13 as a foreign terrorist organization and attempted to remove identified members “as quickly as possible,” US lawyer D. John Sauer wrote to the Supreme Court in a brief Monday.
Court records show Abrego Garcia was pulled outside IKEA in Baltimore on March 12th. An agent called Vazquez Sula said there will be 10 minutes for her son and ice to request child protection services.
According to court documents, Abrego Garcia called his wife and said authorities had pushed him over MS-13. They asked about photos of him playing basketball in a public courthouse and photos of his family visiting a restaurant serving Mexican food and salvadora food.
“He’ll repeat the truth over and over again – he wasn’t in the gang,” Vazquez Sula said in court documents.
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