Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia has a history of domestic violence and gang affiliation, according to a court petition and police report.
On May 5, 2021, Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, filed domestic violence allegations against her husband, claiming, “I am afraid to be close to him.”
“I was watching on my laptop and he yelled to turn it off,” Vasquez Sura recounted in a handwritten statement for the Prince George’s County District Court of Maryland. “I told him I wasn’t sleepy,” she went on. “He got angry, reached over, shut, and threw my laptop on the floor, and the baby started to cry because he was putting pressure on him. My immediate reaction was to push him off of us, and he then punched, scratched me on my left eye, leaving one bleeding.”
At the time, Abrego Garcia’s wife claimed to have “multiple photos/videos of how violent he can be and all the bruises he has left me.”
A March 2019 report from the Department of Homeland Security reports that Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador and crossed into the U.S. illegally near McAllen, Texas in March 2012.
Citing a report from the Prince Georges County Police Gang Unit, the 2019 DHS form states that “Abrego Garcia was validated as a member of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) Gang.”
In March 2019, a Prince Georges County Police report details the arrest of Abrego Garcia alongside three other men, in a Home Depot parking lot in Hyattsville, Maryland. The men were taken into custody after marijuana was found in their possession and one of the four men, Christhyan Hernandez-Romero, was immediately identified as a known member of MS-13.
“Officers know Hernandez-Romero to be an active MS-13 gang member with the Sailor’s Clique with the rank of ‘Observacion’ and moniker of ‘Bimbo.’”
The Sailor’s Clique is a subunit of MS-13. The Trump administration has designated MS-13 as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Jose Guillermo Dominguez was also among the four men arrested and, during his interview in custody, police observed “tattoos [that] are indicative of the Hispanic gang culture,” including “a tattoo of a devil on his left leg which officers know only higher ranking MS-13 gang members are allow[ed] to get a tattoo with the horns.”
When officers interviewed Abrego Garcia, they “observed he 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,” the report details. “Officers know such clothing to be indicative of the Hispanic gang culture. The meaning of the clothing is to represent ‘ver, oir y callar’ or ‘see no evil, hear- no evil and say no evil.’ Wearing the Chicago Bulls hat represents that they are a member in good standing with the MS-13.”
The report continued to say that police “contacted a past proven and reliable source of information, who advised Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia is an active member of MS-13 with the Westerns clique.”
DHS claims that Abrego Garcia has been involved in human trafficking activity.
Abrego Garcia was living in Maryland until the Trump administration deported him on March 15. The Trump administration initially said he was removed due to an “administrative error,” but has since pushed back against that claim.
“A [Department of Justice] lawyer, who has since been relieved of duty, a saboteur, a Democrat, put into a filing incorrectly that this was a mistaken removal. It was not,” Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, said on Fox News on Monday.
On April 4, the District Court for the District of Maryland directed the Trump administration to “facilitate and effectuate the return of [Abrego Garcia] to the United States” on grounds that Abrego Garcia was improperly deported.
This week, Judge Paula Xinis told lawyers for the Justice Department that she was ordering expedited discovery to “determine whether you are fighting the court order, my court orders, whether you intend to abide by the court orders.”
The Supreme Court agreed last week that the Trump administration has an obligation to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from prison in El Salvador, but this requires the government of El Salvador to release Abrego Garcia from prison, which it does not appear interested in doing right now.
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele met with President Donald Trump at the White House Monday and said he has no plans of releasing Abrego Garcia from the prison where he is being held.
