Fact-checking the Trump administration’s claims about Kilmar Abrego Garcia

The Trump administration again detained Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen and Maryland resident whose wrongful deportation case gained national attention at the beginning of the administration’s illegal immigration crackdown.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained Abrego Garcia during his Aug. 25 immigration check-in. A Department of Homeland Security press release said Abrego Garcia was being processed for deportation to Uganda, but a district judge ordered him not to be deported until she can hold an evidentiary hearing

Trump officials defended Abrego Garcia’s detention and deportation by continuing to level accusations against him since wrongly deporting him in March to an El Salvador maximum-security prison. Abrego Garcia had a withholding of removal order that prevented his deportation to his home country. He sued the U.S. government over his mistaken deportation in April and was returned to the U.S. on June 6 to face criminal charges. He was imprisoned in Tennessee, but a judge ordered his release July 23 while he awaits trial.

In Aug. 25 remarks during an executive order signing, President Donald Trump said of Abrego Garcia, "He beat the hell out of his wife, his wife is afraid to even talk about him. She’s been mauled by this animal. And you know, through a system of liberal courts, you know, he’s doing things. But now we have that under control."

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the same ceremony, "(Abrego Garcia) will no longer terrorize our country. He’s currently charged with human smuggling, including children."

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in an X post, "President Trump is not going to allow this illegal alien, who is an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator to terrorize American citizens any longer." 

Some of these statements are exaggerated, and others are based on information from dubious informants. Here’s what we know about Abrego Garcia’s history.

Recent judicial decisions said the government hasn’t proven Abrego Garcia’s gang membership

Trump and his administration officials have repeatedly said Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13, a gang that originated in Los Angeles and is composed primarily of Salvadoran immigrants and their descendants. Abrego Garcia and his lawyer said he is not an MS-13  member. Federal judges in 2025 have agreed. 

A federal judge in July described the U.S. government’s "poor attempts to tie Abrego to MS-13," saying that to conclude Abrego Garcia is a member of or affiliated with MS-13, the court "would have to make so many inferences" that the "conclusion would border on fanciful."

Claims of Abrego Garcia’s alleged gang membership date to 2019 when Maryland police took him into custody while he was looking for day labor outside a Home Depot. Officers asked Abrego Garcia if he was a gang member, and he said no. A police informant told law enforcement that Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 gang member, according to a police report known as a "gang field interview sheet."

ICE took Abrego Garcia into custody after the arrest and Abrego Garcia sought bond. An immigration judge denied his initial bond request, describing officers’ determination that he was a member of MS-13 as "trustworthy" and "supported by other evidence in the record."

Abrego Garcia appealed that ruling, and an appeals board upheld the judge’s decision, saying the judge "appropriately considered allegations of gang affiliation."

In April, while Abrego Garcia was imprisoned in El Salvador, two judges said the U.S. government didn’t sufficiently prove Abrego Garcia’s gang membership.

Trump has falsely said Abrego Garcia has the figures "MS-13" tattooed on his knuckles. 

"There is no evidence before the Court that Abrego: has markings or tattoos showing gang affiliation; has working relationships with known MS-13 members; ever told any of the witnesses that he is a MS-13 member; or has ever been affiliated with any sort of gang activity," Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw said in the July decision ordering Abrego Garcia’s release. 

Grand jury indicted Abrego Garcia for transporting undocumented immigrants across the border

Noem said Abrego Garcia was involved in human trafficking. That’s inaccurate.

A grand jury indictment charged Abrego Garcia with one count of conspiracy to transport undocumented immigrants in the U.S. illegally, and one count of unlawful transportation of undocumented people. The May 21 indictment was unsealed June 6. 

Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty to the charges, which stem from a 2022 traffic stop. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes reiterated that Abrego Garcia is charged with human smuggling, not human trafficking. Trafficking is a crime against people, regardless of their immigration status or crossing of a border, while smuggling is a crime against a country’s immigration laws.

The indictment alleges that from 2016 to 2025, Abrego Garcia participated in a criminal conspiracy to bring undocumented immigrants from "countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Ecuador and elsewhere" who crossed the Mexico border into Texas.

In some instances, the indictment said, MS-13 members and their associates accompanied Abrego Garcia on trips transporting people illegally in the U.S. from Texas to other U.S. locations. Some of the people he transported were also MS-13 members and associates, the indictment said.

It alleged that Abrego Garcia and coconspirators "transported children on the floorboards of vehicles."

In a 2022 traffic stop, a Tennessee Highway Patrol state trooper found Abrego Garcia driving nine passengers, all Hispanic men, the indictment said. Other government statements said he was driving eight people. 

At the time, Abrego Garcia was released with a warning for driving with an expired license. 

Defense attorneys questioned the credentials and motives of unnamed cooperating witnesses — people who provide information to the Justice Department as part of an agreement. 

CNN reported that one witness is a two-time felon who had been deported from the U.S. five times, and has again returned illegally, seeking work authorization. Another admitted to human trafficking and is being held with criminal charges.

Abrego Garcia’s wife filed two protective orders against him over domestic violence

Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, a U.S. citizen, filed protective orders against him in 2020 and 2021. In the orders, Vasquez Sura said Abrego Garcia had slapped, punched and bruised her. 

A few days after filing the 2020 protective order, Vasquez Sura, filed an order rescinding it, citing her son’s birthday and saying Abrego Garcia had agreed to go to counseling. 

After the 2021 filing, a court ordered Abrego Garcia not to contact, harass or abuse Vasquez Sura. 

Vasquez Sura has criticized the Trump administration, telling Newsweek that her protective orders are "not a justification for ICE's action."

"After surviving domestic violence in a previous relationship, I acted out of caution following a disagreement with Kilmar by seeking a civil protective order, in case things escalated," she said. "Things did not escalate, and I decided not to follow through with the civil court process. We were able to work through the situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling."

In July, Judge Crenshaw said, "The allegations against Abrego in the protective orders are both serious and concerning."

However, he said, the matters had been resolved and "there is no proof offered to suggest that Abrego failed to comply with those orders while they were in place, nor evidence suggesting that Abrego has engaged in similar conduct over the past four years."

Bondi’s accusations against Abrego Garcia based on information from coconspirators

Bondi has floated a connection between Abrego Garcia and other crimes, without filing charges.

In June 6 remarks, Bondi said, "A coconspirator alleged that the defendant solicited nude photographs and videos of a minor. A coconspirator also alleges the defendant played a role in the murder of a rival gang member’s mother." 

These allegations don’t appear on the indictment, but they were mentioned in the government’s motion for detention, which said it learned that Abrego Garcia "solicited nude photographs and videos of a minor, beginning in approximately 2020." That motion said "no charges against the defendant regarding child pornography have been filed, but it demonstrates the danger the defendant poses to the community not just with respect to alien smuggling," adding that investigation into that solicitation is ongoing. The government’s motion for detention was denied.

In court, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers objected to hearsay and at times "multiple tiers of hearsay," CNN reported, including when a federal agent said he heard that a cooperator heard someone else accusing Abrego Garcia of sexually harassing women.

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.