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The Trump administration this week escalated its efforts to portray the Maryland man wrongly deported to El Salvador as a gang member with a violent history who they say is “never coming back” to the United States.
A renewed push to cast Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a violent member of MS-13 comes amid growing public outcry against his deportation, criticisms about the lack of due process afforded to him, and the US government’s resistance to facilitate his court-mandated return to the country – which could risk a constitutional crisis. Abrego Garcia’s family and lawyers have denied he’s a gang member.
Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland flew to El Salvador on Wednesday to lobby for the release of his constituent, who the senator described as having been “illegally abducted.” Van Hollen met with Abrego Garcia on Thursday, who was then placed back in El Salvador’s custody.
The Trump administration slammed the senator’s visit and has criticized the media and Democrats for presenting what they described as an overly rosy picture of Abrego Garcia, whom White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has described as a gang member and “apparent woman beater.”
The government on Wednesday released previously unshared documents stemming from two interactions Abrego Garcia had with law enforcement or the courts system: a 2019 arrest that didn’t lead to charges or a conviction, but did result in his detention by immigration officials, and a 2021 protective order his wife filed against him alleging domestic violence, which she later decided against pursuing further after she said the couple had resolved their issues.
Here is what those documents say about his previous interactions with law enforcement:
2019 arrest and immigration hearings
On March 28, 2019, Abrego Garcia and three other men were gathered in the parking lot of a Maryland Home Depot when they were approached by a Hyattsville City Police detective, according to a “gang field interview sheet” from the Prince George’s County Police Department that was published by Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday.
The document says two of the men – it doesn’t mention whether Abrego Garcia was one of them – “reached into their waistbands and discarded several unknown items under a parked vehicle” as the detective approached them. Two “small plastic bottles containing marijuana” were located nearby by law enforcement, according to the document. The men were taken to a police station where they were interviewed.
One of the other three men was recognized by the detective as an active member of MS-13 who had a criminal history that included gang membership. Another had tattoos of skulls covering their eyes, ears and mouths, which the police document described as “indicative of the Hispanic gang culture.”
Abrego Garcia, according to the documents, was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie “with rolls of money covering the eyes, ears and mouth of the presidents on the separate denominations,” both of which law enforcement said were also “indicative” of gang culture. An unnamed informant told police that Abrego Garcia “is an active member of MS-13 with the Westerns clique.”
A separate Department of Homeland Security document produced after his arrest, which noted Abrego Garcia “has no criminal history,” said he was carrying about $1,178 in cash during his arrest. Documents say “officers were unable to determine” whether the fourth man was affiliated with a gang. He was released.
Abrego Garcia and one of the men were described in the document as having been detained “in connection to a murder investigation,” but it provides no further information about that investigation or how either man was identified as having been connected to it. Abrego Garcia was never charged with murder.
The report contains some contradictory information about Abrego Garcia; it simultaneously says he claimed and didn’t claim to officers that he was afraid of returning to his country. Abrego Garcia admitted to police being a citizen of El Salvador who entered the US illegally in 2012. He was detained by immigration authorities after that arrest.
His now-wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, described hiring an attorney to get him out on bond in a declaration that was submitted to the court after his deportation last month. The pair married in 2019 while Abrego Garcia was detained.
“I hired a lawyer to get him out on bond. I attended his bond hearing and was shocked when the government said he should stay detained because Kilmar is an MS-13 gang member. Kilmar is not and has never been a gang member. I’m certain of that. Because of these false accusations, he was denied bond,” she wrote.
Generally, immigration judges may default to the evidence presented by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and law enforcement, leaving the onus on the individual – in this case, Abrego Garcia – to rebut the claims and prove that they are not a gang member. The immigration judge in Abrego Garcia’s case also referred to previous traffic violations in Abrego Garcia’s record.
“The burden of proof is on the applicant for release in this situation. There’s a bias against release. Any derogatory information, no matter how weak, is going to tip the scales against release in that situation,” said David Bier, director of immigration studies at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute.
“The fact that there was this sketchy worksheet out there ultimately was enough to prevent his release on bond prior to a determination on the outcome of his case,” he added.
While the immigration judge didn’t make a definitive finding on whether Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13, the evidence was enough to deny him release from ICE detention. Abrego Garcia remained detained while he went through further proceedings. He attended immigration hearings in August and September 2019.
Vasquez Sura described the August hearing in her court declaration: “The hearing lasted over five hours and focused on two things: the false accusations against Kilmar and the risk to Kilmar’s life if he was deported to El Salvador. The hearing was continued until September because they could not get through everything.”
The evidence presented in immigration court included extortion of Abrego Garcia’s family in El Salvador by a gang, including threats to kill Abrego Garcia, according to an immigration judge’s order in 2019. Abrego Garcia’s parents ultimately decided to send him to the United States amid ongoing threats.
Immigration Judge David Jones found: “His testimony was internally consistent, externally consistent with his asylum application and other documents, and appeared free of embellishment,” later adding: “The court finds the Respondent credible.”
In October 2019, the judge granted Abrego Garcia withholding of removal, meaning he couldn’t be removed to El Salvador over fear of persecution. The Trump administration in 2019 could have appealed the decision but appeared not to.
“If they had appealed, he would’ve remained detained, but they didn’t appeal the grant, so he was released,” Bier said.
The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday also released a copy of a civil protective order that Abrego Garcia’s wife sought against him in 2021. Vasquez Sura later said in a statement that the couple worked through their issues and that she does not believe the petition justifies Abrego Garcia’s removal to El Salvador.
In the 2021 complaint released by the government, Vasquez Sura described arguments that took place between the pair, including one that left Vasquez Sura bleeding and after which she described being “afraid to be close to him.”
On Wednesday, Vasquez Sura said she sought the protective order “in case things escalated” and out of an abundance of caution after experiencing a previous relationship that included abuse.
“Things did not escalate, and I decided not to follow through with the civil court process,” she said in the statement. “We were able to work through this situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling. Our marriage only grew stronger in the years that followed. No one is perfect, and no marriage is perfect.”
She did not pursue the matter further.
In court hearings that have taken place since Abrego Garcia’s deportation, the federal judge overseeing the case has repeatedly asked the Justice Department to provide additional information about Abrego Garcia, including previous charges or convictions, but the DOJ has so far not done so.
The protective order publicized by the government on Wednesday is not an issue in his mistaken deportation – the 2019 order would still prohibit his removal to El Salvador – but it could serve to bolster the White House’s claim that Abrego Garcia has a history of violence, despite his wife saying it should not be used against him.
In late 2022, Abrego Garcia was also pulled over in Tennessee for speeding and had multiple other people in the car. A spokesperson for the Tennessee Highway Patrol told CNN that Abrego Garcia was flagged to federal law enforcement, “who made the decision not to detain him.”
On Friday, the White House also released an investigative referral from DHS that outlined the encounter and Abrego Garcia’s immigration history. According to the report, Abrego Garcia told the officer that he was driving from Houston to Temple Hills, Maryland, to “bring in people to perform construction work,” but the lack of luggage in the vehicle led the officer “to suspect this was a human trafficking incident.” The report also said “DHS sources indicate that Abrego was identified through official law enforcement investigations as a member” of MS-13.
On Friday, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security claimed that the facts surrounding Abrego Garcia’s traffic stop “reek of human trafficking” – pointing toward the number of people and lack of luggage in the car.
His wife, Vasquez Sura, however said in a statement that her husband “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.”
“He was not charged with any crime or cited for any wrongdoing,” she said. “Unfortunately, Kilmar is currently imprisoned without contact with the outside world, which means he cannot respond to the claims or defend himself.”
CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez and Evan Perez contributed.
