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The Fight Trump Wants to Have [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-04-20
Kilmar Armando Ábrego García, a Salvadorian immigrant, is the fight Trump wants to have. Trump is waving the MS-13 (i.e., Mara Salvatrucha 13) blue and white gang flag, confident that bluster and lies will prevail over fact.
Trump won the 2024 presidential election on two issues: the economy—promising lower prices “on day one”—and immigration—pledging mass deportation of “violent” undocumented immigrants. With the economy faltering and Trump’s approval ratings underwater, he needs a different win. That’s where mass deportations come in.
Democrats are split over Ábrego García’s case. Some denounce Trump’s actions for their blatant disregard of due process. In contrast, others sidestep the issue, wary of Trump’s polling advantage on immigration and preferring to focus on the economic narrative.
But understanding Ábrego García’s story complicates the picture. Advocates describe him as a hardworking, loving father and sheet metal apprentice. A proud member of CASA (Central American SolidarityAlliance) and the SMART union (Local 100), he lives legally in the U.S. and has no criminal convictions. Yet, the Trump administration brands him as a woman beater, illegal alien, MS-13 gang member, terrorist, and human trafficker.So—who is the real Kilmar?
Consider this brief biography so you can draw your own conclusions. Ábrego García was born in July 1995 in Los Nogales in El Salvador. He helped his family run a business making pupusas, a stuffed corn or rice flour flatbread filled with cheese, beans, or meat. A local gang, Barrio 18, began extorting the family business. They apparently threatenedto rape and kill his sisters and made repeated threats to his life. At the age of 16, he left for the U.S., eventually crossing the border near McAllen,Texas, in March 2012 (some reports say 2011). He made his way to Maryland to live with his brother, Cesar, a U.S. citizen.
Ábrego García met Jennifer Stefania Vasquez Sura, a U.S. citizen, sometime in 2016, and they developed a romantic relationship. Vasquez Sura has two children from a previous marriage. They moved in together around December 2018, at which point she was already pregnant with their child. The couple married in June 2019 while he was in detention. Their son was born in August 2019 and is now five years old. He is autistic and non-verbal. His step-children are a 10-year-old son who also is on the autism spectrum and an 11-year-old daughter who has epilepsy.
In March 2019, Ábrego García was arrested while seeking day labor work outside a Home Depot in Hyattsville, Maryland. The arrest was dubious; the detective who filed a gang field interview sheet identifying him as MS-13 was suspended five days later, then indicted and convicted for misconduct. Despite no links to MS-13’s New York base, a confidential informant’s claim led to a deportation order.
Ábrego García appealed the ruling after marrying Vasquez Sura in June 2019. In October 2019, an immigration judge granted him “withholding of removal” status, allowing him to remain in the U.S. and work legally.
From October 2019 until his targeted arrest by ICE on March 12, 2025, Ábrego García had not given cause for deportation. However, in May 2021, Vasquez Sura obtained a temporary protective order against Ábrego García for an episode of domestic abuse. The documents referenced two previous incidents of physical abuse in 2020. The case was dismissed on June 17, 2021, because Vasquez Sura did not appear in court. Vasquez Sura recently explained, “We were able to work through this situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling. Kilmar has always been a loving partner and father, and I will continue to stand by him and demand justice for him.” (Source:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wife-deported-maryland-man-abrego-garcia-hit-scratched/story?id=120882240)
For more information about this saga, see
https://www.wakeuptopolitics.com/p/25-facts-about-kilmar-abrego-garcia.
This story is compelling for many reasons, including the fact that this is a mixed-status family. Vasquez Sura and the three children are American citizens, while Ábrego García is undocumented. There are approximately 16.7 million people in the U.S. in mixed-status families, where at least one household member is undocumented, while others are U.S. citizens or lawful residents. (Source:
https://iaphs.org/borders-of-belonging-mixed-status-families-and-the-impacts-of-family-separation-on-population-health/) That is only 4.8% of the total population, but family integrity and viability depend on the continued presence of those undocumented members. Given that he is a father to three children with special needs, his role in the family is even more important.
It is also notable that his union, SMART, which includes sheet metal workers, is calling for his return. The AFL-CIO is adding its voice in support of Ábrego García. At the annual legislative conference, April 6-9, 2025, of the North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), NABTU president Sean McGarvey said, “We demand (he) be returned to us and his family now. Bring him home!” (Source:
https://nwlaborpress.org/2025/04/labor-demands-return-of-union-apprentice-jailed-in-el-salvador/) This underscores the importance of undocumented workers to the U.S. economy.
ICE arrested Ábrego García on March 12, 2025, after completing a shift at a construction site with his special needs five-year-old son in the car. On March 15, 2025, he was illegally deported to El Salvador due to his October 2019 “withholding of removal” order. The Trump administration admitted that they made a mistake in removing Ábrego García. Still, the U.S. and El Salvador claim that they are powerless to return him—a coordinated talking point that makes a joke of due process.
With the deportation of 238 men to El Salvador, Trump has woven a web of deceit and illegality. CBS News 60 Minutes found that 75% of the men deported had no trace of a criminal record. (Source:
https://www.axios.com/2025/04/07/report-migrants-salvadoran-mega-prison-no-record)
Consider these five points:
1 False Premise: Despite promising to deport only violent criminals, Trump’s administration is removing people with no criminal records.
2 ICE’s Lawlessness: ICE is operating like an unchecked police force—making warrantless arrests, using deceptive tactics, and bypassing judicial review through expedited removal.
3 Weaponizing the Alien Enemies Act: Trump invoked the 1798 Act to claim the U.S. is at war with gangs and thus justify deportations without due process. Legal experts widely expect this maneuver to be struck down in court.
4 Contempt of Court: Trump defied a March 15 court order mandating the return of deportees mid-flight. That alone constitutes contempt of court.
5 Ignoring Judicial Mandates: Despite a 2019 withholding of removal order and orders from both a district court and the U.S. Supreme Court, Trump has refused to return Ábrego García. In a scathing opinion, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson wrote that the administration seeks to “stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process... This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from court houses still hold dear.” (Source:
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/17/abrego-garcia-appeal-wilkinson-00298063)
But Trump’s lawlessness knows no bounds. Trump tried to deport dozens more undocumented Venezuelans to El Salvador. On Saturday, April 19, 2025, at 1:00 am, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily halted deporting “alien enemies.” The ruling was 7 to 2, with Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissenting.
On April 14, 2025, Trump mused during his appearance with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele about sending U.S. citizens who committed heinous crimes to El Salvador. Trump asked Bukele to build five more prisons to hold all of the people that he would be sending.
Trump ignores due process because if he followed it, he would not obtain the outcome that he wants: mass deportation. On March 15, 2025, and on April 19, 2025, Trump violated the requirement of due process as GUARANTEED in the Fifth Amendment (ratified in 1791) and the Fourteenth Amendment (ratified in 1868).
There are two ironies. First, Trump is president because he used due process to delay federal trials that would have likely found him guilty and eventually imprisoned and disqualified from running for president.
Second, VP JD Vance wrote in a Tweet/X on April 15, 2025, “To say the administration must observe ‘due process’ is to beg the question: what process is due is a function of our resources, the public interest, the status of the accused, the proposed punishment, and so many other factors. To put it in concrete terms, imposing the death penalty on an American citizen requires more legal process than deporting an illegal alien to their country of origin.” (Source:
https://x.com/JDVance/status/1912320489261027374) No, JD, due process is solely a function of the law: “No person shall... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law...” Period.
Due process is inconvenient for a would-be dictator, but due process is what protects all of us from Trump and Vance. Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen went to El Salvador and visited with Ábrego García on April 14, 2025, to bring more publicity to the plight of Ábrego García.
The fight over Kilmar Armando Ábrego García is not just about one man—it’s a test of the nation’s moral and constitutional backbone. If due process can be denied to him, it can be denied to anyone. In a democracy, even unpopular individuals are entitled to the protections of the law. When leaders treat the Constitution as an inconvenience, liberty itself is under assault. The question now is not just whether Ábrego García will come home—but whether the country will come home to its constitutional values.
Day 90: days left to January 20, 2029: 1,371 days
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