- The Trump administration has repeatedly defended the deportation.
SAN SALVADOR − The Maryland senator who traveled here hoping to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a sheet metal worker who was living in Maryland when he was wrongly deported here a month ago, remained steadfast in his efforts to free the father of three.
“I’ve been in El Salvador all day fighting for the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen said in a social media post late on April 16. “The Trump Admin can lie all they want, but the Court said they failed to show he was part of MS-13. This is about bringing home a man they ADMIT should’ve never been abducted. I won’t rest until then.”
Authorities declined to allow Van Hollen to meet with Abrego Garcia, being held in a notorious prison here. Earlier that day, the Trump administration again defended the deportation despite multiple court orders to “facilitate” his return to the U.S.
“If he ever ends up back inside the United States, he would immediately be deported again,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. She also raised a series of domestic violence allegations against Abrego Garcia from his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura.
Abrego Garcia updates: Senator travels to El Salvador; Trump admin defends deportation
Among them a copy requesting a restraining order following a domestic dispute between the pair. According to the court order from 2021, Abrego “punched and scratched” Vasquez Sura, “ripped off shirt, grabbed and bruised her.”
Vasquez Sura told USA TODAY in a statement that she had acted out of caution after a disagreement in filing the temporary protective order, which was closed a month after she filed it, according to Prince George’s County records.
Contributing: Michael Collins, Eduardo Cuevas, Riley Beggin
