(NewsNation) — Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man who was wrongly deported from the United States to an El Salvador prison?
If you ask the Department of Justice, he is the leader of a Long Island branch of the notorious Salvadoran gang MS-13.
But if you ask Abrego Garcia’s wife and lawyer, he’s a hard-working father with a clean criminal record.
Both the Trump administration and Abrego Garcia’s family are aligned in that he was wrongly deported to a maximum security prison in El Salvador in March.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia living under protected legal status since 2019
The 29-year-old was arrested and mistakenly deported to El Salvador from his home in Maryland in March.
He entered the U.S. illegally but has been living in the country with his wife and son under protected legal status since 2019. This means he should not have been deported back to El Salvador because a judge agreed, after hearing his case, that his life was in danger there.
According to court documents, Abrego Garcia was arrested in 2019 in Hyattsville, Maryland, along with two known members of MS-13, for “loitering” in a Home Depot parking lot.
A Prince George’s County Police Department police report from March 28, 2019, noted, “He was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie with rolls of money covering the eyes, ears and mouth of the presidents. … Officers know such clothing to be indicative of the Hispanic gang culture.”
Abrego Garcia did admit to entering the U.S. illegally.
Credit: U.S. District Court 
This undated photo provided by Murray Osorio PLLC shows Kilmar Abrego Garcia. (Murray Osorio PLLC via AP) 
HYATTSVILLE, MD – APR 4: Jennifer, center, whose husband Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported by ICE, is hugged by a staff member of CASA, at the CASA Multicultural Center during a press conference ahead of Garcia’s hearing. 
GREENBELT, MD – APR 4: Protestors stand outside the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland during Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s hearing. 
HYATTSVILLE, MD – APR 4: Jennifer Vasquez Sura, whose husband Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported by ICE, speaks at a rally and press conference at the CASA Multicultural Center ahead of his hearing. 
GREENBELT, MD – APR 4: Protestors stand outside the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland during Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s hearing. 
HYATTSVILLE, MD – APR 4: Lucia Curiel, who represented Kilmar Abrego Garcia, speaks at a press conference and rally for Garcia before his hearing, at the CASA Multicultural Center. 
This undated photo provided by CASA, an immigrant advocacy organization, in April 2025, shows Kilmar Abrego Garcia. (CASA via AP)
More documents from Homeland Security allege he was detained in 2019 in connection with a murder, but no charges were brought, and Abrego Garcia said he was never implicated.
Sources told NewsNation that Abrego Garcia was stopped by the Tennessee Highway Patrol in 2022 for reportedly illegally transporting eight immigrants from Houston to Maryland, but he was let go without charges.
Abrego Garcia’s attorney, Benjamin Osorio, told NewsNation’s “CUOMO” on Wednesday that the new records don’t prove anything.
“Our team did not represent him in the original proceedings in 2019. I’ve seen those documents, and there’s nothing in there that makes me believe that he is an MS-13 gang member,” he said.
The White House also highlighted that Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, sought a restraining order against him in 2021.
However, Sura, who’s been at the forefront of the fight for Abrego Garcia’s release, said she acted out of caution but ultimately decided not to pursue the order.
The Trump administration has continued to argue Abrego Garcia is a high-ranking gang member after they say a confidential informant identified him as such, specifically identifying him as part of MS-13’s Long Island leadership.
The State Department has designated MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, as a terrorist organization. The gang was created by Salvadoran immigrants in the U.S. before it gained a foothold in Central America, according to officials.
Abrego Garcia has denied the accusations and has said he’s never been to Long Island. Law enforcement in New York’s Suffolk County and Nassau County do not have an arrest record or a record of investigation into Abrego Garcia.
Supreme Court rules Trump admin must bring back Kilmar Abrego Garcia
The Supreme Court ruled last week that the Trump administration must bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. However, the Department of Justice is pushing back on that ruling, arguing that the courts have no authority to force his return.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said, “That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us.” She also said it is an “international issue” and the U.S. would provide a plane if El Salvador wanted to bring Abrego Garcia back.
Trump, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele meet at the White House
On Monday, Trump met with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in the White House. Bukele said during that meeting that he does not plan on returning Abrego Garcia to the U.S.
“How can I return him to the United States?” He asked. “I smuggle him into the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it.”
The Washington Post reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that Trump and his administration were not bound to follow these court orders. He said, “No court in the United States has a right to conduct the foreign policy of the United States.”
He went on to say, “I don’t understand what the confusion is. This individual is a citizen of El Salvador. He was illegally in the United States and was returned to his country.”
During his meeting with Bukele, Trump said, “You are helping us out,” referring to El Salvador holding migrants deported from the U.S. in the maximum-security prison near San Salvador.
Since March, El Salvador has accepted more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants accused by U.S. officials of gang activity and violent crimes. As part of Trump’s deportation efforts is a $6 million deal to bring those alleged gang members to the El Salvador prison.
How is the Trump administration handling deportation efforts?
Since his campaign, Trump has promised to fix the “border crisis” with mass deportations. Trump has faced recent criticism and legal battles over his deal with Bukele to deport accused gang members from the U.S. to El Salvador’s mega-prison.
At the beginning of April, the Trump administration deported another group of men they claimed were members of the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs.
A White House official said this was carried out under immigration authorities, not the Alien Enemies Act. The White House has been sued over its use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants and has been ordered to suspend deportations under it.
However, the Supreme Court ended up ruling that the Trump administration could use this act for deportations as long as each person gets a court hearing before leaving the U.S.
Trump would ‘love’ to send American inmates to El Salvador prison
Trump once told reporters that he would “love” to send American inmates to El Salvador’s mega-prison but that he first needs to make sure it is legal.
“Well, I love that,” Trump said. “If we could take some of our 20-time wise guys that push people into subways and that hit people over the back of the head and that purposely run people over in cars — if he [Bukele] would take them, I would be honored to give them.”
According to The Washington Post, immigration experts have said that this would not be legal.
On Monday, Trump reiterated that he was open to sending U.S. citizens to the El Salvador prison if they committed violent crimes, according to The Washington Post.
“If they’re criminals? And if they hit people with baseball bats over their head, that happened to be 90 years old. And if they rape 87-year-old women in Coney Island, Brooklyn? Yeah, yeah,” Trump said.