Supporters come together for the man expelled in El Salvador prison

By Michael Kunzelman

Hyattsville, md. (AP)-The wife of a man from Maryland who was wrongly expelled to a notorious prison in Salvador joined dozens of supporters during a rally before a court hearing on Friday, where his lawyers will ask a federal judge to order the Trump administration to return to the United States in the United States

Jennifer Vasquez Sura, an American citizen, has not spoken to her husband, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, since he was transported by plane to her native Salvador and imprisoned. She urged her supporters to continue to fight for her husband “and every kilman there whose stories are still waiting to be heard”.

“For all women, mothers, children who are also faced with this cruel separation, I am with you in this pain link,” she said during the gathering in a community center in Hyattsville, Maryland. “It is a trip that no one should ever suffer, a nightmare that seems endless.”

The campaign to bring the couple to move to a courtroom in Greenbelt, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC

The White House threw Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29

The lawyers of Abrego Garcia replied that there was no evidence that he was in MS-13. The allegation is based on the complaint of a confidential informant in 2019 according to which Abrego Garcia was a member of a chapter in New York, where he never lived.

The erroneous deportation of Abrego Garcia, described by the White House as an “administrative error”, indignant many and raised concerns about the expulsion of non-citizens who have been authorized to be in the United States

Abrego Garcia had a license from the Ministry of Internal Security to work legally in the United States, said his lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg. He was an apprentice in sheet metal and continued his companion license.

He fled El Salvador around 2011 because he and his family faced threats from local gangs. In 2019, an American immigration judge granted him protection against expulsion to El Salvador because he was likely to face the persecution of the gangs. He was released and the application of immigrants and customs did not appeal the decision or tried to deport him to another country.

Abrego Garcia later married Vasquez Sura. The couple are parents of their son and two children from a previous relationship.

“If I had all the money in the world, I would spend just to buy one thing: a phone call to hear the voice of Kilmar again,” said Vasquez Sura. “Kilmar, if you can hear me, I miss you so much, and I do my best to fight for you and our children.”

Finley reported Norfolk, Virginia.

Originally published: April 4, 2025 at 11:00 a.m.