The Real Story of the Maryland Father Deported to El Salvador By Mistake

As more stories emerge of the migrants deported from the United States to El Salvador, the "administrative error" that put Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father said to have legal status, on one of the planes has caused outrage among many Americans who see the deportation flights as a flagrant miscarriage of due process.

But the man's alleged gang ties have made this case more complex.

The U.S. government has long-argued that Abrego Garcia resident has ties to MS-13, a criminal gang that began in immigrant communities in Los Angeles with ties to Central and South American countries. His attorneys argue he doesn't have a criminal history and has never been charged with a crime in the U.S., El Salvador, or anywhere else.

In 2019 during an immigration hearing, a judge issued a removal order, but added a clause preventing Abrego Garcia's removal to El Salvador because there was enough evidence he could be persecuted if returned home.

That order appeared to have been missed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) a few weeks ago, when the Salvadoran national was put on a plane to his home country destined for its notorious CECOT prison, separating him from his U.S. citizen wife and disabled son, according to court filings.

"The government could have chosen to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia to any other country on earth, but did not," his attorneys wrote in a court filing Friday. "The government could later have filed a motion to reopen proceedings against Mr. Abrego Garcia and seek to set aside the order of protection, but did not."

Abrego Garcia was not alone. Over 200 individuals, mostly Venezuelans with alleged ties to another gang, Tren de Aragua, were deported under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA), and those challenging the use of the 227-year-old act have argued other innocent individuals were wrongly deported, too.

Who is Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia?

Abrego Garcia was born in July 1995, in the Los Nogales neighborhood of San Salvador, El Salvador's capital, according to a court filing from 2019 seen by Newsweek. His mother ran a business selling pupusas, a traditional Salvadoran dish of griddled flatbread, with the family all helping out.

He testified then that when the Barrio 18 gang realized the business was making money, it tried to extort his mother Cecilia with rent demands. If she couldn't pay, the gang said, Abrego Garcia's older brother Cesar could join the gang instead. The family paid the money and hid the boy, eventually sending him to the U.S.

The gang turned their attention to Abrego Garcia, then around 12 years old, following him and continuing to make threats to the wider family. They eventually sent him to the U.S. as well in around 2011 or 2012. He allegedly crossed the border illegally.

In 2016, he met his now wife, Jennifer Stefania Vasquez Sura in the U.S. She had two children from a previous relationship, and the pair had a child together in August 2019. All three have special needs.

Following his arrest and detention in March 2019, the pair got married that June, out of fear for his removal and knowing they wanted to be together, his wife wrote in a court filing.

"I coordinated with the detention center and a local pastor to officiate our wedding. We were separated by glass and were not allowed physical contact," she wrote. "The officer had to pass our rings to each other. It was heartbreaking not to be able to hug him."

During his immigration hearing that year, the Salvadoran told the judge then that he feared returning to his home country because of the potential threat of persecution and torture. He applied for asylum, but that option is only available to those who have been in the U.S. around a year. By that point, he had been stateside for about seven years.

The judge agreed there was a significant threat posed to Abrego Garcia if he was returned home, and despite ordering his removal, barred ICE from sending the migrant back to El Salvador. He was then released from detention and frequently checked in with ICE.

Is Abrego Garcia a Member of MS-13?

"The judge found he was in MS-13 and then granted him protection from a rival gang," a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Newsweek Wednesday.

Abrego Garcia, his wife, and attorneys all deny he has ties to the gang, with a March 24 filing from the lawyers stating that "the U.S. government has never produced an iota of evidence to support this unfounded accusation".

The allegation that the Salvadoran national is an MS-13 member appears to stretch back to his initial arrest by police in Beltsville, Maryland in March 2019.

Vasquez Sura, the wife, wrote in a court filing that Abrego Garcia had dropped her off the day after discovering they were expecting a baby boy. She said he went to find work and was looking for day jobs at a local Home Depot with three others when police showed up.

While in custody, the Salvadoran was asked if he was a gang member, which he denied, but officers did not believe him, attorneys wrote. Then ICE agents arrived and took him into custody.

"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," his wife wrote.

Abrego Garcia was denied bond because officials argued there was sufficient evidence to show he was "a verified member" of MS-13, meaning he was a danger to the community.

His attorneys claimed, and ICE later confirmed, that the only verification came from a form filled out by the Prince George County Police Department, which based his membership on the fact that "he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie; and that a confidential informant advised that he was an active member of MS-13 with the Westerns clique" – a group based out of Long Island, New York.

"It was so clear that they had absolutely no evidence that Kilmar was ever a gang member, yet they made us prove he was not one," Vasquez Sura wrote on March 24, 2019, during his immigration hearing.

After the judge issued the removal order with the bar on deportation to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was released to be with his family. His wife testified that he had continued working to support his family and secured an apprenticeship in September 2024.

"This removal was an error"

Then on March 12 of this year, ICE caught up with Abrego Garcia again as he drove his stepson home. He had thought it a routine traffic stop, but the officer was an agent with DHS. When his wife arrived, finding her husband in handcuffs, an agent told her that his immigration status had changed and he was being taken away.

In phone calls from detention in Baltimore, Abrego Garcia told his wife that agents questioned him repeatedly about his MS-13 connections, referencing a restaurant the family frequented and highlighting a photo of him playing basketball.

A few days later, he was moved to Louisiana and Vasquez Sura got a call on March 15, at around 11 a.m. ET.

"That call was short and Kilmar's tone was different," she wrote. "He was scared. He was told he was being deported to El Salvador. He was told he was being deported to El Salvador to a super-max prison called 'CECOT.'"

She has not heard from him since. But she has seen him.

When photos and video appeared online showing the 200-plus deportees with their heads shaved, arriving at CECOT, Vasquez Sura recognized her husband.

As more details on those who had been deported came out, despite a judge's Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) enjoining the flights to El Salvador, it became clear that something had gone awry to lead the government to put Abrego Garcia onto a plane bound for the country the same government said he should not return.

"Through administrative error, Abrego-Garcia was removed from the United States to El Salvador," Robert L. Cena, acting field office director for Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO) in Harlingen, wrote in a sworn statement, in which he added: "This was an oversight, and the removal was carried out in good faith based on the existence of a final order of removal and Abrego-Garcia's purported membership in MS-13."

Cena said that ICE was aware of the 2019 order barring Abrego Garcia from deportation to El Salvador — it was on internal paperwork. On March 15, as other illegal immigrants were struck off the flights' manifest "for various reasons", Abrego Garcia moved up the list, Cena said. That list did not include the note, which appears to be the genesis of the "administrative error."

Attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said in a response Wednesday that this was "an outrageous set of facts," and demanded the court seek to fix the error.

Newsweek reached out to Abrego Garcia's attorneys for comment via email Wednesday.

Should Abrego Garcia have been deported in the first place?

The Trump administration has offered a mixed response to the Salvadoran's removal. While it has admitted the error that put him on the plane to El Salvador, officials including Vice President JD Vance have maintained the view that he is a member of MS-13.

Vance said in a post on X Tuesday, responding to the liberal podcaster Jon Favreau, that Abrego Garcia was "a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here."

The vice president was asked about the deportation again Thursday morning, in an appearance on Fox News, where he again said Abrego Garcia was a convicted MS-13 member.

"He had also committed some traffic violations, he had not shown up for some court dates," Vance told host Lawrence Jones. "This is not exactly 'father of the year' here."

Abrego Garcia has not been charged or convicted of a crime, per his attorneys. A search of court filings in Maryland by Newsweek returned no results for his name.

The White House maintains that he is a criminal, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt telling reporters Tuesday: "Foreign terrorists do not have legal protections in the United States of America anymore, and it is within the president's executive authority and power to deport these heinous individuals from American communities."

Vance said Thursday that this was "unquestionably an illegal alien" who had "zero right" to be in the U.S.

Abrego Garcia did enter the U.S. at an unknown date and time, and for that reason he could be subject to deportation. But as the judge ruled in 2019, it should not have been to El Salvador.

Can Abrego Garcia get back to his family?

This is what his attorneys are working toward, with the help of some lawmakers representing Maryland. The state's two senators, Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, both Democrats, said Tuesday that Abrego Garcia's deportation was unacceptable.

"This incident underscores the Administration's complete disregard for due process rights as they pursue their indiscriminate mass deportation policy," the pair said in a joint statement. "The Trump Administration must take immediate action to right this wrong."

Maryland's Governor Wes Moore, also a Democrat, echoed their words, telling Newsweek that it was his priority to keep Marylanders safe.

"But we can be pro-public safety and pro-Constitution at the same time," he said in a statement. "It's outrageous that due process means nothing to the federal administration. No one should be deported to the very country where a judge determined they will face persecution. The federal government has admitted to making an error, and I urge them to correct it."

But the Department of Justice (DOJ) says its hands are tied. In a court filing, the DOJ said that the U.S. no longer has jurisdiction over Abrego Garcia. He is in Salvadoran custody while at CECOT.

His attorneys believe the court does have power to do something about the case, arguing that the judge could order the U.S. government to request El Salvador release the man back into U.S. custody, and stop the Trump administration from subsidizing CECOT for holding deportees. El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, has been working hand in glove with the White House on the CECOT deportations.

For now, it remains unclear what will happen to Abrego Garcia or the other immigrants attorneys argue were wrongfully removed to El Salvador.

"This has been a nightmare for my family," Vasquez Sura said. "My faith in God carries me, but I am exhausted and heartbroken. My children need their father... I need to know when my husband is coming home."