The legal team behind Kilmar Ábrego García, the Maryland man unlawfully deported to El Salvador, is demanding that the Trump administration “bring him back and give him a full and fair trial” as the administration releases new domestic abuse allegations.
In a press release issued on Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cited allegations made by Ábrego García’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, that he abused her on several occasions in 2019 and 2020.
Sura, a US citizen, filed a petition for protection against her husband in 2020, according to the new documents. She claimed to local police in Maryland that Ábrego García had kicked and verbally abused her, detained her against her will, and locked their children in a bedroom, among other accusations.
She also claimed that, in 2019, he dragged her from a car by her hair. Ábrego García was never charged, according to Axios.
The documents note that shortly after filing for the protective order in 2020, Sura asked the court to rescind it. She had said that their son’s birthday was approaching and Ábrego García had agreed to counseling.
In response to the revelations from the DHS, Ábrego García’s lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, told the Guardian that “the whole country has spent the last month talking about Kilmar Ábrego García, and speaking for or against Kilmar Ábrego García” and that “the one person who hasn’t yet had the chance to speak is Kilmar Ábrego García”.
“The government needs to bring him back and give him a full and fair trial. They can introduce all of this evidence, and he can respond in his own voice,” he said.
Sandoval-Moshenberg also noted to Axios that the allegations were not related to the deportation.
This move from the DHS comes on the heels of the administration resurfacing a separate protective order Ábrego García’s wife filed in 2021, also alleging domestic violence. In a statement, Sura said she filed the order “in case things escalated” but said that “things did not escalate”.
“I decided not to follow through with the civil court process,” she said in April.
“No one is perfect, and no marriage is perfect. 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 Alliance for Immigrant Survivors argued in a letter last week that the White House had “weaponized” Sura’s decision to seek a temporary protection order in 2021 “in order to justify her husband’s illegal kidnapping and indefinite incarceration”.
“To be clear, nothing in Kilmar Ábrego García’s history gives the government permission or an excuse to violate his right to due process or legitimize his illegal removal from the US,” the letter reads.
The letter also said that the administration posted a court document online that exposed Sura’s family’s home address, forcing her and her children “into hiding”.
“Attempts to traumatize and intimidate survivors, and turn their experiences into political theater, are unacceptable and damaging,” the letter adds.
Despite a 2019 court order prohibiting him from being sent to El Salvador, Ábrego García was deported from the US to El Salvador in March. The Trump administration has repeatedly accused him of being a member of the MS-13 gang, which was recently designated as a foreign terrorist organization; just last month, the administration posted documents online to bolster their claim that Ábrego García is a gang member.
Ábrego García’s lawyers say that he had never been convicted of a crime in the US or El Salvador. They, along with his wife and labor union, have also repeatedly denied that he is a member of MS-13.
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Shortly after the deportation, the Trump administration admitted in a court filing that it was the result of an “administrative error”. In the weeks since, administration officials have reversed course and insisted that Ábrego García was not wrongly deported.
A federal judge, backed up by the supreme court, ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Ábrego García’s release and provide evidence of the actions it has taken to get him back.
Trump officials have argued that US courts lack jurisdiction since Ábrego García is not a US citizen and no longer in the country. The legal fight over his return is ongoing.
On Thursday, Senators Chuck Schumer, Chris Van Hollen, Tim Kaine and Alex Padilla said they would require the Trump administration to produce a report on wrongful deportations to El Salvador.
Ábrego García entered the US illegally in 2012 and was arrested in March 2019 along with three other people while looking for work at a Home Depot in Maryland.
Police officers at the Prince George’s county police department said at the time that the men were “loitering” and identified Ábrego García as a member of MS-13, citing his clothing and information from a confidential source.
Ábrego García challenged the determination, arguing that it was “hearsay”.
Later that year, an immigration judge ruled that Ábrego García could not be deported back to El Salvador because he faced a credible fear of persecution. He was granted a “withholding of removal” order, preventing him from being sent to the Central American country.
But on 12 March 2025, Ábrego García was detained by Ice officers who his lawyers say “informed him that his immigration status had changed”. He was deported to El Salvador, without a hearing, three days later and sent to a maximum-security prison.
The White House has also accused Ábrego García of human trafficking due to a 2022 traffic stop during which he was found driving eight people from Houston to Maryland. He was not charged with any infraction, according to DHS, but received a warning citation for driving with an expired license. His wife said in a statement that he worked in construction and that he sometimes transported groups of workers between job sites.
Ábrego García has since been moved out of the mega-prison to another prison in El Salvador.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
