Latest news with #PupuseriaCecilia
Global News
3 days ago
- Politics
- Global News
Kilmar Abrego Garcia back in U.S., charged with human smuggling as lawyers vow ongoing fight
To hear the U.S. Preident Donald Trump's administration tell it, Kilmar Abrego Garcia smuggled thousands of people across the country who were living in the U.S. illegally, including members of the violent MS-13 gang, long before his mistaken deportation to El Salvador. In allegations made public nearly three months after his removal, U.S. officials say Abrego Garcia abused the women he transported, while a co-conspirator alleged he participated in a gang-related killing in his native El Salvador. Abrego Garcia's wife and lawyers offer a much different story. They say the now 29-year-old had as a teenager fled local gangs that terrorized his family in El Salvador for a life in Maryland. He found work in construction, got married and was raising three children with disabilities before he was mistakenly deported in March. The fight became a political flashpoint in the administration's stepped-up immigration enforcement. Now it returns to the U.S. court system, where Abrego Garcia appeared Friday after being returned from El Salvador. He faces new charges related to a large human smuggling operation and is in federal custody in Tennessee. Story continues below advertisement Speaking to NBC's Kristen Welken in a phone interview Saturday, Trump said it was not his decision to bring Abrego Garcia back. 'The department of justice decided to do it that way, and that's fine,' he said. 'There are two ways you could have done it, and they decided to do it that way.' Trump said it should 'be a very easy case.' In announcing Abrego Garcia's return Attorney General Pam Bondi called him 'a smuggler of humans and children and women' in announcing the unsealing of a grand jury indictment. His lawyers say a jury won't believe the 'preposterous' allegations. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who visited Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, said his return to the U.S. was long overdue. 'As I have repeatedly said, this is not about the man, it's about his constitutional rights – and the rights of all,' the Maryland Democrat said in a statement. 'The administration will now have to make its case in the court of law, as it should have all along.' Story continues below advertisement Gang threats in El Salvador Abrego Garcia grew up in El Salvador's capital city, San Salvador, according to court documents filed in U.S. immigration court in 2019. His father was a former police officer. His mother, Cecilia, sold pupusas, flat tortilla pouches that hold steaming blends of cheese, beans or pork. The entire family, including his two sisters and brother, ran the business from home, court records state. 'Everyone in the town knew to get their pupusas from 'Pupuseria Cecilia,'' his lawyers wrote. A local gang, Barrio 18, began extorting the family for 'rent money' and threatened to kill his brother Cesar — or force him into their gang — if they weren't paid, court documents state. The family complied but eventually sent Cesar to the U.S. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Barrio 18 similarly targeted Abrego Garcia, court records state. When he was 12, the gang threatened to take him away until his father paid them. The family moved but the gang threatened to rape and kill Abrego Garcia's sisters, court records state. The family closed the business, moved again, and eventually sent Abrego Garcia to the U.S. The family never went to the authorities because of rampant police corruption, according to court filings. The gang continued to harass the family in Guatemala, which borders El Salvador. Story continues below advertisement Life in the U.S. Abrego Garcia fled to the U.S. illegally around 2011, the year he turned 16, according to documents in his immigration case. He joined Cesar, now a U.S. citizen, in Maryland and found construction work. About five years later, Abrego Garcia met Jennifer Vasquez Sura, a U.S. citizen, the records say. In 2018, after she learned she was pregnant, he moved in with her and her two children. They lived in Prince George's County, just outside Washington. In March 2019, Abrego Garcia went to a Home Depot seeking work as a laborer when he and three other men were detained by local police, court records say. They were suspected of being in MS-13 based on tattoos and clothing. A criminal informant told police that Abrego Garcia was in MS-13, court records state but Prince George's County Police did not charge the men. The department said this year it had no further interactions with Abrego Garcia or 'any new intelligence' on him. Abrego Garcia has denied being in MS-13. Although they did not charge him, local police turned Abrego Garcia over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He told a U.S. immigration judge that he would seek asylum and asked to be released because Vasquez Sura was pregnant, according to his immigration case. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security alleged Abrego Garcia was a gang member based on the county police's information, according to the case. The immigration judge kept Abrego Garcia in jail as his case continued, the records show. Story continues below advertisement Abrego Garcia later married Vasquez Sura in a Maryland detention centre, according to court filings. She gave birth while he was still in jail. In October 2019, an immigration judge denied Abrego Garcia's asylum request but granted him protection from being deported back to El Salvador because of a 'well-founded fear' of gang persecution, according to his case. He was released; ICE did not appeal. Abrego Garcia checked in with ICE yearly while Homeland Security issued him a work permit, his attorneys said in court filings. He joined a union and was employed full time as a sheet metal apprentice. In 2021, Vasquez Sura filed a temporary protection order against Abrego Garcia, stating he punched, scratched and ripped off her shirt during an argument. The case was dismissed weeks later, according to court records. Vasquez Sura said in a statement, after the document's release by the Trump administration, that the couple had worked things out 'privately as a family, including by going to counseling.' 'After surviving domestic violence in a previous relationship, I acted out of caution after a disagreement with Kilmar,' she stated. She added that 'Kilmar has always been a loving partner and father, and I will continue to stand by him.' 6:57 Kilmar Abrego Garcia wife speaks as US judge orders sworn testimony from Trump officials A traffic stop in Tennessee In 2022, according to a report released by the Trump administration, Abrego Garcia was stopped by the Tennessee Highway Patrol for speeding. The vehicle had eight other people and no luggage, prompting an officer to suspect him of human trafficking, the report stated. Story continues below advertisement Abrego Garcia said he was driving them from Texas to Maryland for construction work, the report stated. No citations were issued. Abrego Garcia's wife said in a statement in April that he 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.' The Tennessee Highway Patrol released video body camera footage this May of the 2022 traffic stop. It shows a calm and friendly exchange between officers and Abrego Garcia as well as the officers discussing among themselves their suspicions of human trafficking before sending him on his way. One of the officers said: 'He's hauling these people for money.' Another said he had $1,400 in an envelope. An attorney for Abrego Garcia, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said in a statement after the release that he saw no evidence of a crime in the footage. Mistaken deportation and new charges Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador in March despite the U.S. immigration judge's order. For nearly three months, his attorneys have fought for his return in a federal court in Maryland. The Trump administration described the mistaken removal as 'an administrative error' but insisted he was in MS-13. His abrupt release from El Salvador closes one chapter and opens another in the months-long standoff. Story continues below advertisement The charges he faces stem from the 2022 vehicle stop in Tennessee but the human smuggling indictment lays out a string of allegations that date back to 2016 but are only being disclosed now. A co-conspirator also alleged that Abrego Garcia participated in the killing of a gang member's mother in El Salvador, prosecutors wrote in papers urging the judge to keep him behind bars while he awaits trial. The indictment does not charge him in connection with that allegation. 'This is what American justice looks like,' Attorney General Pam Bondi said in announcing Abrego Garcia's return and the unsealing of a grand jury indictment. Speaking to NBC's Kristen Welker in a telephone interview, Trump said it was not his decision to bring Abrego Garcia back. Abrego Garcia's attorney disagreed. 'There's no way a jury is going to see the evidence and agree that this sheet metal worker is the leader of an international MS-13 smuggling conspiracy,' attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
New York Times
04-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Inside One Migrant's Accidental Journey to a Salvadoran Prison
The harrowing story of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia began six years ago on a March morning, when he dropped his pregnant girlfriend off at her job in suburban Maryland and made his way to a local Home Depot, hoping to find work as a casual day laborer. It took an even darker turn last month when Mr. Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old father and a Salvadoran migrant, was accused of belonging to a violent street gang. He was summarily deported to a Salvadoran prison — even though an American immigration judge had already decided he could remain in the United States, concerned he might be tortured in his homeland. What happened in between those events is now the subject of a fierce legal battle between his lawyers and the Trump administration, which acknowledged this week that his deportation on March 15 was an 'administrative error.' Even after making the rare admission, the administration has effectively thrown its hands in the air, saying there is little it can do to retrieve Mr. Abrego Garcia from the brutal prison where it accidentally sent him. For now at least, there appear to be more questions than answers in the case. That could change on Friday, when a federal judge in Maryland is set to consider an emergency request by Mr. Abrego Garcia's legal team. His lawyers are asking for an order that will force the White House to use whatever means it has at its disposal — diplomacy, money, even a simple phone call — to bring their client back to the United States. On Wednesday afternoon, the lawyers wrote to the judge, Paula Xinis, laying out the import of the case, not only for the man they represent, but for all migrants passing through the system. 'If defendants' actions in this case are allowed to remain without redress, then orders of immigration courts are meaningless,' they wrote, 'because the government can deport whomever they want, wherever they want, whenever they want, and no court can do anything about it once it's done.' Mr. Abrego Garcia, a metal worker, is the unlikely protagonist of what has become a national drama. He grew up in San Salvador, the Salvadoran capital, helping run his family's business, Pupuseria Cecilia, which was named after his mother. Even though his father was a former patrolman, court papers say, the business was often extorted by a local gang called Barrio 18, which eventually began a campaign of threats and violence against the family. In 2011, his lawyers say, Mr. Abrego Garcia fled those threats and came to the United States illegally, moving to Maryland, where his older brother, a U.S. citizen, lived. Five years later, he met his future wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, also a citizen, and started a family with her on Ms. Sura's salary as a dental worker and his own pay from the construction field. Lawyers for Mr. Abrego Garcia did not respond to a request for comment. On March 28, 2019, while Mr. Abrego Garcia was looking for work with three other migrants at a Home Depot in Hyattsville, Md., just outside Washington, he was taken into custody by officers from the Prince George's County Police Department. The officers asked if he was a gang member, and refused to believe him when he denied it, court papers say. That same day, agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took custody of him as Ms. Sura sat alone at home, wondering where he was. 'I called various jails, but no one had information on his whereabouts,' she said in a sworn statement submitted last month to Judge Xinis. 'The next morning, around 10 a.m., Kilmar called me from ICE custody.' For the next six months, Mr. Abrego Garcia's case moved through an immigration court as the federal agents sought to deport him, claiming he belonged to a transnational street gang known as MS-13. Mr. Abrego Garcia not only denied he was a member of the gang, but also told the immigration judge about his family's struggles with gangs in El Salvador, asking for a humanitarian exception to remain in the United States. During the proceedings, the agents offered two pieces of evidence backing up their claims: an accusation from a confidential informant who said that Mr. Abrego Garcia belonged to MS-13, and the fact that when he was arrested he had been wearing Chicago Bulls merchandise, which the officials claimed was proof of his gang membership. While he was never charged with, or convicted of, being in the gang, the evidence was enough for the judge hearing his case to keep him in custody while the matter was resolved. There was still a bright spot for the family: In June 2019, the couple married in the deportation center where Mr. Abrego Garcia was being held. 'We were separated by glass and were not allowed physical contact,' Ms. Sura recalled in her statement. 'The officer had to pass our rings to each other. It was heartbreaking not to be able to hug him.' In October of that year, Mr. Abrego Garcia won his case, as the immigration judge granted him a special status known as 'withholding from removal.' That allowed him to avoid being deported to El Salvador because he might face violence or torture there. The next six years flew by with striking normalcy. The couple had a third child, who was diagnosed with autism. Mr. Abrego Garcia kept his job as a metal worker and began taking classes at the University of Maryland, in nearby College Park. While he was required to check in with ICE once a year, there were no further arrests or allegations of gang membership. 'We really believed that the false accusations had been cleared up and that they were behind us,' Ms. Sura said. Last month, everything changed. On March 12, after finishing his shift as an apprentice at a new job site in Baltimore, Mr. Abrego Garcia picked up his youngest child, now 5, from his grandmother's house. While driving home, court papers say, he was stopped by immigration agents who told him that he no longer enjoyed protected status in the country. Minutes later, he was in handcuffs and placed inside an ICE vehicle. The agents called Ms. Sura, giving her 10 minutes to pick up their child, according to the papers. When she arrived, she was able to speak briefly with her husband before he was taken away. 'Kilmar was crying,' she recalled in her statement, 'and I told him he would come back home because he hadn't done anything wrong.' That never happened. Instead, court papers say, Mr. Abrego Garcia was moved around the country to various detention centers, where he again faced questions about alleged gang affiliations. One day after his arrest, according to the papers, he was allowed to call Ms. Sura, and confided to her that, while he was 'very confused,' he had been assured that he would soon be brought in front of an immigration judge. That never happened either. Mr. Abrego Garcia's arrest took place as the Trump administration was hastily arranging a series of charter flights to El Salvador intended to deport a group of Venezuelan migrants to the country under an entirely different legal framework. The Venezuelans, all of whom had been accused of belonging to a different gang called Tren de Aragua, were being deported under the expansive powers of an 18th-century wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Act. On the morning of March 15, Ms. Sura got a call from her husband, who informed her that he was being deported to El Salvador. That evening, he was placed on one of three flights that departed from a detention center in Raymondville, Texas, near the southern border, with instructions to deliver the passengers to a notorious megaprison in El Salvador called the Terrorism Confinement Center. Ms. Sura has seen her husband only once since then — in a photo of the deportees that accompanied a newspaper article. The photo showed a group of men, their backs bent and their arms on their heads. None of their faces were visible. Still, she recognized what seemed to be familiar tattoos on one of the men. 'I zoomed in to get a closer look at the tattoos,' she recalled in her sworn statement. 'My heart sank. It was Kilmar.'
