The wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, is pleading for his safe return, and had an emotional message for him amid the ongoing controversy.
The Trump administration has been told to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States, but with each passing day without him coming back to U.S. soil, his wife Jennifer says the family is “being robbed” of time with the devoted husband and father.
“Kilmar needs to come home, and it’s time we see how this will be fulfilled,” she said before a status hearing on the case outside a Maryland courthouse. “My family can’t be robbed of another day without seeing Kilmar. This administration has already taken so much from my children, from his mother, brother, sisters and me.”
Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Trump administration has pushed back on efforts to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S., arguing that he is a citizen of El Salvador and that they don’t have a basis to return him to the country.
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele sounded similar notes at the White House Monday, calling the idea “preposterous” and insisted that he would “not smuggle a terrorist into the United States,” despite uncertainty over whether Abrego Garcia is actually a member of the infamous MS-13 gang.
Jennifer Garcia praised activism groups that have been pushing for her husband’s return, and she shared a message with her husband more than a month after he was deported to El Salvador.
“Kilmar, if you can hear me, stay strong. God hasn’t forgotten about you,” she said. “Our children are asking when will you come home. I pray for the day I tell them the time and date that you will return.”
She accused the Trump administration and the administration of Bukele of “playing political games” with the situation, and said that her family has been “torn apart” during a frightening time.
“I hope that the strength of faith and resilience within us keeps us standing,” she said.
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Trump administration officials emphasized that Abrego Garcia, who was sent to a notorious gang prison in El Salvador, was a citizen of that country and that the U.S. has no say in his future. And Bukele, who has been a vital partner for the Trump administration in its deportation efforts, said “of course" he would not release him back to U.S. soil.
Should El Salvador want to return Abrego Garcia, the U.S. would “facilitate it, meaning provide a plane,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said.
Bondi asserted that two immigration court judges — who are under Justice Department purview — found that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13, although the man’s attorneys say the government has provided no evidence that he was affiliated with MS-13 or any other gang. The allegation is based on a confidential informant’s claim in 2019 that Abrego Garcia was a member of a chapter in New York, where he has never lived. It also cited the fact that he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat when he was arrested. He was never charged with a crime at that time, however.
He was not deported under the Alien Enemies Act, but the administration has conceded that he shouldn’t have been sent to El Salvador because an immigration judge found he likely would face persecution by local gangs.
The White House described Abrego Garcia’s deportation to his native country as an “administrative error."
