The wife of a Salvadoran man Donald Trump ’s administration admits was mistakenly deported to that country’s notorious prison says she is “very scared” for her husband’s safety.
“I've seen news of that prison, and I know they take criminals there. And my husband’s not a criminal,” Jennifer Vasquez Sura told CBS News .
Her husband Kilmar Abrego Garcia was expelled to El Salvador on March 15 , joining many other primarily Venezuelan immigrants on deportation flights after Donald Trump quietly activated the Alien Enemies Act to expel alleged Tren de Aragua gang members without delay .
Under that wartime authorization, two aircraft were dispatched to El Salvador, whereas a third airplane was intended solely for transporting migrants who had court orders for deportation. Abrego Garcia found himself on that particular flight—a situation that government officials termed as an "error."
In 2019, a judge halted the deportation of Abrego Garcia due to compelling evidence indicating that he faces threats of violence and death in his homeland. He left his country in 2011 at the age of 16 for this very reason. As per the court ruling, he can stay in the U.S. lawfully and has to attend periodic check-ins. Immigration and Customs Enforcement According to legal papers, his latest sighting was in January.
He doesn't have any criminal history in the United States or elsewhere. El Salvador According to his lawyer, he has been residing here. Maryland Alongside his wife and their 5-year-old child, who are both U.S. citizens, he also assists in raising two kids from an earlier relationship.
Their 5-year-old child has autism and doesn't speak.
Garcia Abrego worked five days a week as a sheet metal installer and simultaneously attended college courses, according to an interview with CBS News by Sura.
On March 12, three days prior to being transferred to El Salvador’s prison, ICE officials informed her that his legal standing had "altered," adding that he would undergo fingerprinting and detention, according to her statement.
Once he was transferred between various detention facilities, he informed her that if she failed to get another call from him, she ought to presume he had been deported.
“She informed CBS News, ‘He never reached out,’ adding, ‘I kept waiting and waiting, but that call never came.’”
She subsequently recognized him in a photo taken at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, which was provided by the Salvadoran government; the footage showed hooded officials hauling chained men into the facility.
When I spotted him, I instantly fell apart because I recognized it was him," she stated. "I feared for his safety.
After the revelation from the government's acknowledgment in official court documents, the Vice President JD Vance incorrectly identified Abrego Garcia as a "convicted gang member." The White House press secretary did so. Karoline Leavitt acknowledged a "clerical error" in his case, yet asserted without offering proof that Garcia was a "leader" within the MS-13 gang and implicated in human trafficking activities.
He isn’t a criminal," Sura stated to CBS News. "My spouse is an incredible individual. A wonderful father.
Even though the government has acknowledged the mistake, the Trump administration is "astonishingly" making no effort to bring Abrega Garcia back, his lawyer stated.
"This scenario would be quite distinct if the administration approached the court with humility, admitting their mistake and guaranteeing the court that corrective actions were being implemented, and contending that the judiciary shouldn’t interfere with processes already initiated," said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg. wrote in court filings on Wednesday.
Rather than taking responsibility, defendants have completely distanced themselves from plaintiff, his U.S.-citizen spouse, and his non-verbal, autistic five-year-old U.S.-citizen child," he stated. "Their suggested solution for resolving this situation—of their own making, whether intentional or at worst reckless—is essentially nonexistent.
If he cannot find another solution, then court orders designed to safeguard him and others like him become pointless. As Sandoval-Moshenberg points out, this means “the government could remove anyone at any time and place without restriction, with no possibility for intervention from any court after the fact.”
He is urging a judge to direct the Trump administration to ask the government of El Salvador politely for his return, according to Sandoval-Moshenberg’s writing.
"It defies understanding" that the administration hasn't attempted this yet, he remarked.
Judge Paula Xinis is set to conduct a hearing in the case on April 4th.
In the meantime, an independent federal judge has temporarily halted the administration from conducting further deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act, a prohibition that was upheld by appellate court judges last week . The administration is now asking the Supreme Court to intervene and overturn the order.
District Judge James Boasberg is considering whether to hold government officials in contempt after defying his court orders to stop the flights from happening in the first place. A hearing in that case is set for April 3.
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