Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s deportation opens up discussions

Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported from the United States to El Salvador’s Terroism Confinement Center (CECOT) on March 15, 2025. Abrego Garcia was deported for allegedly being tied to the MS-13 gang. White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, had also accused Abrego Garcia of being involved in human trafficking on April 15. While neither accusations have any credible evidence, President Trump and his administration insist they made the right decision with the deportation of Abrego Garcia.

Abrego Garcia was not a complete U.S. citizen. He entered the United States illegally from El Salvador in 2012.

In March of 2019, Abrego Garcia was detained with three other individuals in the Hyattsville Maryland Home Depot parking lot. They were detained by the Prince George County Police Department for loitering. Afterwards, Abrego Garcia and two others were identified as members of MS-13.

The Prince George County Police Department filled out a “Gang Field Interview Sheet” that stated the reason why Abrego Garcia was allegedly a gang member. The interview sheet states Abrego Garcia was wearing a “Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie with rolls of money covering the eyes, ears and mouth of the presidents on the separate denominations,” and the “officers know such clothing to be indicative of the Hispanic gang culture.”

The officers also stated that the “money covering the eyes, ears and mouth” is representative of “ver, oir y callar” or “see nothing, hear nothing and say nothing.” “Ver, oir y callar” is said to be related to gangs such as MS-13 and Abrego Garcia “wearing the Chicago Bulls represents that they are a member in good standing with the MS-13.”

Abrego Garcia was then arrested and held in custody.

According to Abrego Garcia’s lawyers, he has not been convicted of any crime, including those gang-related, in the U.S. or El Salvador. But, the judge that presided over his case in 2019 said that based on the confidential information, there was enough credible evidence to support Abrego Garcia’s gang membership. 

This finding was then upheld by a second judge. 

Abrego Garcia was subsequently denied bail and remained in custody, but he applied for asylum to avoid deportation to El Salvador.

In October of 2019, Abrego Garcia was granted a “withholding of removal” order. This order prevented the U.S. government from deporting Abrego Garcia back to El Salvador because he could face harm from Barrio-18, a gang that reportedly threatened his family and their businesses. 

Since the “withholding of removal” order in 2019, Abrego Garcia has attended yearly check-ins with immigration officers and he has attended “without fail and without incident.”

But his protective order was violated when he was deported back to El Salvador in what the Trump administration claimed to be an “administrative mistake.”

Even though the administration seems to admit that they made an error in deporting Abrego Garcia, Trump and his administration have directly disobeyed the Supreme Sourts’ order to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia. 

An appeals court on April 17 rejected a bid by the Trump administration to block the order that directed the government to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Trump administration was attempting to claim that it had “a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process.” 

Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland flew to El Salavador and met with Abrego Garcia to support his right to due process. Van Hollen stated that this “is not only about one man.” This is about the Trump administration’s disregard for the judicial system.

Van Hollen is not the only government official concerned. Bi-partisan officials from different levels of the government are showing concern for the blatant disregard of the law and the checks and balances that were put in place by the constitution. 

The Trump administration directly disobeying the order of the Supreme Court and an appeals court, and the disregard for the right to due process, is a sign that the executive branch has no concern for the law or what the constitution has to say about the United States Government.