The wife of a Maryland man deported to a Salvadoran prison described him as \u201cabducted and disappeared\u201d by the Trump administration while Congressional leaders on Wednesday vowed to pressure the Latin American country for his return.<\/p>\n
Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), during a press conference with Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s family, said he plans to push Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to release the father of three, who the Trump administration sent to prison there due to an \u201cadministrative error.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI will be writing to President Bukele to formally ask for the release of Kilmar, and we also want to know his condition,\u201d Espaillat said, adding that he hopes to directly visit the Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT in Spanish, to check on Abrego Garcia’s well-being.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no charges here and there are no charges in El Salvador, he has not been charged with a crime, and yet he sits in jail. We believe fundamentally that that is illegal, illegal here and illegal there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bukele is due in the U.S. next week to meet with President Trump.<\/p>\n
A federal court ordered the Trump administration to secure Abrego Garcia\u2019s return to the U.S. by Monday, but the Supreme Court agreed to intervene, temporarily blocking the lower court order amid further deliberations.<\/p>\n
Abrego Garcia\u2019s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, gave an emotional account of her inability to reach her husband since he was sent to CECOT 28 days ago. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis should have never happened,\u201d Vasquez Sura said. \u201cKilmar should have returned home 50 hours ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lower court ruling ordering Abrego Garcia’s return was a particularly scathing one, with U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis writing that the Maryland man\u2019s protection from deportation by a court in 2019 meant his removal was \u201cwholly lawless.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNeither the United States nor El Salvador have told anyone why he was returned to the very country to which he cannot return, or why he is detained at CECOT,\u201d Xinis wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat silence is telling. As Defendants acknowledge, they had no legal authority to arrest him, no justification to detain him, and no grounds to send him to El Salvador \u2014 let alone deliver him into one of the most dangerous prisons in the Western Hemisphere.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has accused Abrego Garcia of being a member of MS-13 based on a report from a confidential informant, who claimed he was involved with the international criminal gang in New York. But Abrego Garcia\u2019s family says he never lived in New York, contesting that he has any gang ties. <\/p>\n
He also has no criminal record in the United States.<\/p>\n
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said Abrego Garcia\u2019s case speaks to the broader risks for others who may be swept up by Trump administration immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing people being disappeared across the United States. In some cases, they’re visiting students. In some cases, there are other people who are legal immigrants,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’re also standing up for all those other people right now who are under permanent threat from this lawless administration,\u201d he said to Vasquez Sura.<\/p>\n
Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) wrote a letter last week inquiring about Abrego Garcia\u2019s condition but said he has yet to receive any information from the State Department.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me get this straight, the government admits that they made an error. The lawyer who comes into court agrees with that and acknowledges it, and we know that that was bothering the Trump administration, because they punished him for having said the truth when he was in court,\u201d Ivey said, referencing the suspension of the career Justice Department attorney who was fighting against Abrego Garcia\u2019s release.<\/p>\n
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) also highlighted Bukele\u2019s visit, calling him complicit in the Trump administration\u2019s human rights abuses.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to say one last word about El Salvador, a beautiful country, but a country with a leader who has become a mercenary, a mercenary who it looks like is complicit in violating human rights,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMake no mistake, Kilmar and others who’ve been deported, some on shaky grounds under the Alien Enemies Act, are in gulags. They are in torture prisons. And President Bukele is responsible for that, and at some point he also must be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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