The wife of Kilmar Ábrego García, the Maryland man unlawfully deported to a mega-prison in El Salvador, has strongly criticized the Trump administration’s attempt to smear his character, saying a temporary restraining order against him was “out of caution” and that “he is a loving partner and father” who is being denied justice.
Jennifer Vasquez Sura said she “acted out of caution after a disagreement with Kilmar” when she got the civil protective order in 2021, according to a statement emailed to the Baltimore Sun.
Vasquez Sura said she decided not to follow through with the civil court process because “things did not escalate” with her husband.
“We were able to work through this situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling. Our marriage only grew stronger in the years that followed. No one is perfect, and no marriage is perfect,” she wrote.
“That is not a justification for ICE’s action of abducting him and deporting him to a country where he was supposed to be protected from deportation.”
The Trump administration has refused to attempt to return Ábrego García to the US after he was mistakenly placed on a deportation flight to El Salvador last month, despite legal rulings ordering his return.
The Trump administration claims that Ábrego García is a member of MS-13, a gang the administration has listed as a foreign terrorist organization. Ábrego García, through his attorneys, has denied any affiliation. He has no criminal record in either the US or El Salvador.
A federal judge in Maryland ordered the return of Ábrego García to the US. The supreme court upheld the ruling last week. But Stephen Miller, Trump’s immigration adviser, has claimed that the supreme court actually ruled the other way, interpreting the ruling as saying the administration did not have to try to bring him back.
El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, claimed on Monday that he has no power to return Ábrego García to the US. El Salvador has been paid $6m to accept deportations from the US to its mega-prison, the Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), which is notorious for its reported human rights abuses.
The Trump administration released documents on Wednesday that purported to support its claim that Ábrego García was a member of MS-13 – specifically a police report from Maryland in 2019 in which Prince George’s county police described approaching Ábrego García and three other people at a Home Depot parking lot in Hyattsville.
The report said Ábrego García was wearing “a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie with rolls of money covering the eyes, ears and mouth of the presidents” on the bills, claiming that this was “indicative of the Hispanic gang culture”.
Police handed Ábrego García over to immigration authorities, but an immigration judge then barred him from being sent to El Salvador, reportedly saying Ábrego García had proved a “well-founded fear of future persecution” from local gangs there, allowing him to the stay in the US and receive a work permit.
Earlier this year, however, Ábrego García was apprehended in an Ikea parking lot and on 15 March he was deported to El Salvador, where he is currently being held at the mega-prison.
skip past newsletter promotion
Sign up to Headlines US
Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
after newsletter promotion
The Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen tried and failed to secure a meeting with Ábrego García on Wednesday.
The Department of Homeland Security posted images of court documents from the 2021 restraining order, saying: “Kilmar Abrego Garcia had a history of violence and was not the upstanding ‘Maryland Man’ the media has portrayed him as.” The documents include allegations that Ábrego García “punched and scratched”, as well as “ripped off [the] shirt” of Vasquez Sura, and “grabbed and bruised” her.
The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, said in a statement: “We hear far too much in the mainstream media about sob stories of gang members and criminal illegals and not enough about their victims.”
Separately, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “You would think we deported a candidate for Father of the Year.”
The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, said Wednesday: “America is safer because he is gone. Maryland is safer because he is gone. And that woman that he is married to and that child he had with her? They are safer tonight because he is out of our country and sitting in El Salvador where he belongs.”
Vasquez Sura strongly disputed those claims. She said in her statement: “Kilmar has always been a loving partner and father, and I will continue to stand by him and demand justice for him.”
