Officials have recently turned to releasing information about his alleged domestic abuse. The audio file is from one of those court hearings.
Wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia sought protection order in 2020
Audio depicts Jennifer Vasquez Sura, wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, pleading with a judge for temporary protection from her husband in 2020.
Audio obtained by USA TODAY from a 2020 court hearing in Maryland shows Jennifer Vasquez Sura pleading with a judge for temporary protection from her husband, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the wrongfully deported Salvadoran migrant at the center of a deportation storm.
Abrego Garcia “grabbed me from my hair, and then he slapped me,” Vasquez Sura said in her 2020 testimony to a judge.
For weeks, the White House and Homeland Security officials have defended deporting the 29-year-old Maryland father to a Salvadoran prison, after acknowledging in court that it was done in error and against an immigration judge’s court order.
The Trump administration insists he is a member of the MS-13 gang, but a federal judge has questioned the strength of the government’s evidence. Abrego Garcia denies being a gang member and has no criminal convictions.
Officials have recently turned to releasing information about his alleged domestic abuse. The audio file is from one of those court hearings.
“Recently an audio clip of a civil court hearing related to the protection order I filed became public. I previously acknowledged the protection order and will again address a personal and painful part of mine and Kilmar’s life. Neither of us were in a good place at that time,” Vasquez Sura told USA TODAY in a May 1 statement.
She added: “My husband was traumatized from the time he spent in ICE detention and we were in the throes of COVID. Like many couples, we were caring for our children with barely enough to get by. All of those factors contributed to the actions which caused me to seek the protective order.”
Judicial testimony describes alleged abuse
On April 16, DHS officials distributed a restraining order petition from 2021. On April 30, a 2020 petition to a Maryland court was released by DHS depicting more allegations of violence against Abrego Garcia.
In the August 2020 recording before Judge Ada Clark-Edwards, Vasquez Sura describes in detail how Abrego Garcia was detained and in ICE custody through her 2019 pregnancy but returned home a changed person.
“Once he came out, maybe like a month after he was out, he changed a lot with me and my kids,” Vasquez Sura told the judge. “He would yell at them, yell at me for anything, and any little thing.””
In 2021, Vasquez Sura filed for a protection order a second time, citing instances of violence in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Abrego Garcia “punched and scratched” Vasquez Sura, ripped off her shirt and grabbed and bruised her, she said in 2021.
Police never charged Abrego Garcia with domestic violence.
Supreme Court battle
Abrego Garcia, a Maryland sheet metal worker, was pulled over by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents while driving with his 5-year-old son on March 12. Three days later, he was deported to a prison for terrorists in his native El Salvador.
In 2019, an immigration judge ruled Abrego Garcia could not be deported to El Salvador because he had a “well-grounded fear of future persecution.”
A U.S. district judge ordered the Trump administration to return him. The U.S. Supreme Court pared down that order, ordering the administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release.
Abrego Garcia: A popular cause
Abrego Garcia’s wrongful deportation and the administration’s refusal to return him to the U.S. have made him a focal point for opposition to the Trump administration’s program of mass deportations.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., visited Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, and several Democratic members of the House of Representatives also went to El Salvador to push for his release.
On May 1, Sens. Van Hollen, Tim Kaine, D-Va., Alex Padilla, D-Ca., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced they would file a resolution to require the State Department to issue a report on El Salvador’s human rights record.
At a press conference announcing the move, Van Hollen said his support for Abrego Garcia is about due process and the Supreme Court’s order to facilitate his return.
“We’re not vouching for Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” Van Hollen said. “We’re vouching for his constitutional rights because if you trample over his constitutional rights, you threaten them for every American and everyone who resides in America.”
DHS: ‘Violent illegal alien’
DHS officials used the newly surfaced allegations as more reason to bolster their deportation claims.
“The facts are clear: Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a violent illegal alien who abuses women and children. He had no business being in our country and we are proud to have deported this violent thug,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
“We have now found two petitions for protection against him, in addition to the fact that he entered the country illegally and is a confirmed member of MS-13,” McLaughlin said. “Our country is safer with him gone.”
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland has refuted evidence submitted by the government that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang.
“No one is perfect, and no marriage is perfect,” Vasquz Sura said in her statement. “I never imagined the lowest moment in our relationship would be weaponized to demonize my husband’s character, or used as a justification to violate his legal rights or defy the courts.”
“Kilmar is a loving partner and father, and I will continue to stand by him, fight for justice, and demand his return to the family that loves him,” she said.