No 'Maryland father': What to know on White House allegations against Kilmar Abrego Garcia
The White House has defended expelling Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a Salvadoran prison by releasing documents officials say portray the Maryland father as a gang member.
In court filings, Trump administration officials have acknowledged that they mistakenly deported Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran national, but argue they have no authority to free him because he's imprisoned in a foreign country.
On April 16, officials released documents they say contradict media coverage painting him as a father of three living with his wife in Maryland. On social media and in a press briefing, the Trump administration has sought to tie Abrego Garcia to the MS-13 gang, which was recently deemed a foreign terrorist organization.
They say he was an MS-13 gang leader and an abusive husband who should be in El Salvador's notorious Terrorism Confinement Center. They cite a redacted 2019 gang report alleging he was a member of MS-13 and an unredacted 2021 temporary protective order filed by his wife for a domestic dispute.
“There is no Maryland father,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an April 16 briefing. “Let me reiterate, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an illegal alien, MS-13 gang member and foreign terrorist who was deported back to his home country.”
Leavitt took no questions.
The government's evidence of his gang ties relies on a confidential informant and clothing Abrego Garcia was wearing in a 2019 police encounter. Despite making the documents public, the administration hasn't provided evidence in court linking him to gangs or criminal activity.
Paula Xinis, the federal judge handling the case for his return, has questioned the strength of the government's evidence. The case has gone before the Supreme Court, which has ordered the government must facilitate his return.
"In any event, Defendants have offered no evidence linking Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or to any terrorist activity," Xinis wrote in an April 6 opinion.
Abrego Garcia's family has denied he was a gang member. He hasn't been charged or convicted of any crimes. The family is suing the Trump administration for what judges have ruled was his unlawful removal to El Salvador.
"If the government believes there is a legitimate case to be made, it should present that case in a court of law and have a judge review and decide his fate — not on social media," his lawyers said in a statement. "But that cannot happen until Mr. Abrego Garcia is returned to the United States and given full due process."
What did redacted gang report say?
The Justice Department released documents for a March 2019 encounter Abrego Garcia had with local police at a Home Depot in Hyattsville, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. At the time, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said he was seeking work as a day laborer.
The case set off a chain of events that culminated in him being turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and accused of being MS-13.
According to the redacted Gang Field Interview Sheet, Prince George’s County Police officers responded to the Home Depot and found four men loitering in the parking lot and detained them for questioning. Abrego Garcia was among them.
Police said they arrested two men identified as active MS-13 members and found two small plastic bottles with marijuana.
Abrego Garcia, police said, wore a Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie with rolls of money “covering the eyes, ears and mouth of the presidents on the separate denominations,” which they said indicated his gang allegiance.
The report also relied on a confidential informant who indicated Abrego Garcia was an active member of MS-13 under the moniker “Chele” as part of the Westerns clique. His attorneys have said in filings that the Westerns clique — according to the Justice Department and the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office — is based on Long Island, New York, a state where Abrego Garcia has never lived.
According to the report, police took about four hours to respond to the incident, detain Abrego Garcia and the other men, and file the Gang Field Interview Sheet tying Abrego Garcia to MS-13, as his lawyers have said.
At the time, his attorneys said they tried to obtain more information on the allegations, including contacting the Prince George’s County Police detective who authored the report. Ivan Mendez, the former detective who made the report, was suspended from the police department days after Abrego Garcia's arrest.
After Mendez pleaded guilty to misconduct, local prosecutors placed him on a "Do not call" list because they deemed him an unreliable witness, as Paste BN found in court records.
White House alleges domestic violence in unredacted order
In the briefing room, Leavitt also pointed to a copy of a 2021 temporary protective order request Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, filed after a domestic dispute. According to the order, Abrego “punched and scratched” Vasquez Sura and “ripped off shirt, grabbed and bruised her.”
The Department of Homeland Security posted the unredacted report — which includes Vasquez Sura's date of birth and address and her mother's address — to X.
Vasquez Sura told Paste BN in a statement that she had acted out of caution after a disagreement in filing the temporary protective order, which was closed a month after she filed it, according to Prince George’s County records.
"After surviving domestic violence in a previous relationship, I acted out of caution after a disagreement with Kilmar by seeking a civil protective order in case things escalated,” Vasquez Sura said. “Things did not escalate, and I decided not to follow through with the civil court process.”
Paste BN asked the White House if these two documents are the sum total evidence that Abrego Garcia belongs to a designated terrorist group.
Harrison Fields, a deputy White House press secretary, responded by saying the question was "jaw-dropping" and "is being a wife beater not enough? He was here illegally.”
Contributing: Francesca Chambers and Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy of Paste BN.