This is Kilmar Abrego Garcia

a sheet metal worker who has a legal status that specifically says he cannot be deported to El Salvador. And yet this photo shows him in a prison in El Salvador.

This is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, a sheet metal worker with three kids who is married to a US citizen and has a legal status that specifically says he cannot be deported to El Salvador. This photo is him in a horrific prison in El Salvador.

Kilmar grew up in the Los Nogales neighborhood of San Salvador in El Salvador. His dad was a retired police officer, and his mom, Cecilia, ran a pupusa business out of their home, called, appropriately enough, “Pupuseria Cecilia.”

Kilmar, his dad, his big brother Cesar, and his two sisters all helped with the business. Kilmar had two basic jobs: go to the grocery store to buy the materials for the pupusas, and then, along with his brother, deliver the pupusas to customers.

At some point, a local gang called Barrio 18 realized the family was making some good money with their business and started extorting the family for money. They eventually offered a deal when the family couldn’t give them the increasing amounts of money: give us your oldest son for the gang and we’ll leave you alone.

The family refused. The gang continued to show up for “rent” and told them if they were short they’d kill Cesar. The family eventually sent him to the US, where he could be safe.

When Kilmar was 12, the gang returned and said they were taking him for themselves. Kilmar’s dad gave them a large sum of money so they’d leave him, and then he moved the family a ten minute drive away. But the gang showed up again, now threatening to harm their daughters, also. The family moved again, even further away, and kept all three of their remaining kids inside the house as much as possible.

Four months later, concerned that they were unable to keep their son safe, they sent Kilmar to the US, following the path of his brother.

Kilmar was 16 when he crossed the US border in 2011.

Eight years later, some police officers stopped him in a Home Depot parking lot. One of the other men said that Kilmar was a gang member, which the police wrote in their report… but they also wrote that they did not believe this to be true.

Kilmar hadn’t committed a crime, but he was turned over to ICE, and – I’m going to jump to the important bit here – he eventually received a protected legal status called “withholding of removal.” He remained “removable” SO LONG AS HE WAS NOT SENT BACK TO EL SALVADOR.

In other words, a judge listened to his case and said, “Yeah, he can legally be deported under some circumstances, just not to his home country where he would be in danger from the gangs.”

This is, by the way, a legal status for immigrants, although there isn’t a path to citizenship through this status. He was denied asylum (which he also applied for). But again, this was a guy who wasn’t committing any crime. He settled down and married a US citizen. He was paying taxes, doing his work, keeping his head down.

Kilmar did marry a US citizen, and as of today, they have a five year old son, who has autism and is also a US citizen, as well as two children from his wife’s previous relationship. He was a sheet metal worker and was taking classes and doing an apprenticeship so he could become a licensed journeyman and better take care of the family.

On March 12th of this year, Kilmar was pulled over. He thought it was a routine traffic stop. He told the officer he had a special needs child in the back of the car. Within minutes he was on the curb without his belt and shoes, hand-cuffed, and his wife had been called and told to get there in ten minutes or they would call CPS to come get her child.

When she arrived, her son and her husband were crying. She was allowed to quickly say goodbye, and she told Kilmar not to worry because he hadn’t done anything wrong. The ICE agents told her that Kilmar’s immigration status had been changed. (Which we later learned was not true, actually.)

In the detention center, ICE kept asking Kilmar about his gang affiliations, which he didn’t have. He also had no criminal history in the US, in El Salvador, or anywhere else.

Kilmar was never charged with a crime. Typically, if the government wants to deport someone with protected status, the standard course would be to reopen the case and introduce new evidence arguing for deportation. He was told multiple times he would see a judge.

Anyway, he suddenly ended up on a plane to El Salvador without talking to a judge. His wife has seen pictures of him in Latin America’s largest prison, which the US is paying $6 million a year to hold a few hundred prisoners. This is a prison that stacks bunks four high, has 100+ people per cell, and keeps people in their cells 23.5 hours a day.

To review:

- Someone with protected, legal status
- Was deported to the ONE PLACE he could not legally be deported
- Without seeing a judge
- After being accused of being a gang member (BUT NOT CHARGED WITH A CRIME) and with no proof of any kind
- And he is now in an abusive super-prison known for its violations of human rights

AND THEN:

On Monday, the US government admitted in court that Kilmar’s deportation was due to “administrative error.”

They admitted that ICE did, in fact, know about Kilmar’s status. Government lawyers: “ICE was aware of this grant of withholding of removal.” He wasn’t meant to be on the plane, he was on the list as an “alternate” and through a variety of mistakes he ended up on the plane.

They messed up. And they admitted it.

Whew. Problem solved. So Kilmar’s on his way home, right?

No.

The government went on to argue that they couldn’t do anything about it. He’s in El Salvador’s custody now and the US has no way to get him back (despite the fact they’re paying for his incarceration).

They also argued that the US judge lacks jurisdiction to say they have to bring him back, because, well, Kilmar is not in the US, and the judge doesn’t have jurisdiction outside the US.

The lawyers also argued that trying to force this injustice to be undone would undermine the current administration’s relationship with an “ally” because they’d have to “cajole” them to get Kilmar returned. And that Kilmar is a danger to the community and that he hasn’t proven that he’s NOT in a gang.

And the kicker: they say that the “President’s primacy in foreign affairs outweigh the interests” on Kilmar’s “side of the scale.” In other words, the financial and emotional hardships to the Abrego Garcia family is “outweighed” by the executive branch’s attempts to keep gang members out of the US.

Kilmar’s lawyers aren’t even sure that there has been a removal order. They haven’t seen one.

All of which to say, hey sorry that we wrongfully detained and then accidentally and illegally deported you. So sorry you’re in a windowless mega-prison designed for holding gang members for the rest of their lives. But hey, there’s nothing we can do about it. We certainly don’t want to have to make a phone call and maybe upset our allies who we are paying to incarcerate you.

What’s to be done?

If you’re a US citizen, please call your reps. Make them as sick of hearing these stories as I am, as you are. Let them know that leaders who can’t fix our mistakes might need to be replaced with someone willing to at least give it a shot.

And don’t look away from the mirror. The US is the kind of country that accidentally deports someone against our own laws, and then ARGUES WITH THE COURT that there’s nothing we can do about it instead of just making the call and making it right.

Because make no mistake, if the right person picked up the phone and called El Salvador, Kilmar would be out of that cell within hours and back on a plane within days.

---

SOURCES:

The article that broke the story.

Another article.

You can read the lawsuit and responses here.

The story about gangs and Kilmar’s childhood.

One of the government responses.