In 2011, his lawyers say, Mr. Abrego Garcia fled those threats and came to the United States illegally, moving to Maryland, where his older brother, a U.S. citizen, lived. Five years later, he met his future wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, also a citizen, and started a family with her on Ms. Sura’s salary as a dental worker and his own pay from the construction field.
Lawyers for Mr. Abrego Garcia did not respond to a request for comment.
On March 28, 2019, while Mr. Abrego Garcia was looking for work with three other migrants at a Home Depot in Hyattsville, Md., just outside Washington, he was taken into custody by officers from the Prince George’s County Police Department.
The officers asked if he was a gang member, and refused to believe him when he denied it, court papers say. That same day, agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took custody of him as Ms. Sura sat alone at home, wondering where he was.
“I called various jails, but no one had information on his whereabouts,” she said in a sworn statement submitted last month to Judge Xinis. “The next morning, around 10 a.m., Kilmar called me from ICE custody.”
For the next six months, Mr. Abrego Garcia’s case moved through an immigration court as the federal agents sought to deport him, claiming he belonged to a transnational street gang known as MS-13. Mr. Abrego Garcia not only denied he was a member of the gang, but also told the immigration judge about his family’s struggles with gangs in El Salvador, asking for a humanitarian exception to remain in the United States.
