More evidence leveled against illegal immigrant and alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia adds further controversy to the track record of a man many Democratic leaders have rallied behind and even visited while imprisoned.
While the newly released claims of spousal abuse are a legal matter separate from the man’s deportation, the significant media coverage and political backing Abrego Garcia has garnered in his deportation case continues to grow.
The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday posted a second domestic abuse filing against Abrego Garcia made in a Maryland district court in 2020 by his wife, Jennifer Vasquez.
In her petition for protection, written in her own handwriting, Vasquez detailed the abuse she says she and her three children faced at the hands of her husband, including slapping her, pulling her out of the car by her hair and then leaving her on the side of the road, locking her children in a room while they cried and breaking her phone and her child’s tablet.
In the second petition against Abrego Garcia that Vasquez filed in 2021, it accused him of punching, scratching, bruising and ripping off the clothes of Vasquez.
Both petitions, however, were rescinded, and Vasquez wrote in her reasoning to dismiss the 2020 request that Abrego Garcia “agreed to continue counseling and if not (is) willing to sign divorce papers.”
Since then, Vasquez — aside from politicians and his legal counsel — has been her husband’s most vocal critic on his deportation, which a now-dismissed Department of Justice attorney claimed was an “administrative error” in a court filing.
Despite the findings, Abrego Garcia’s attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, argued that the domestic abuse allegations do not pertain to his deportation case.
“If the government believes it has a strong case against him, they should bring him back and give him a full and fair trial,” he said, per NBC News. “At that trial, they can introduce all of this evidence, and Mr. Abrego Garcia can respond in his own voice. Until then, we’re all talking about him and talking for him, but he hasn’t had the chance to speak for himself.”
If Abrego Garcia returns to face trial in the U.S., it is unclear how the courts will assess the evidence as a whole.
Political pressures to return Abrego Garcia
To this day, he’s never been convicted of any crime in the U.S. or in his home country of El Salvador. Still, President Donald Trump further reiterated his administration’s stance that Abrego Garcia will likely not return in an interview with ABC News on Wednesday.
When asked how he plans to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court’s order to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return, Trump said, “This is not an innocent, wonderful man from Maryland,” but someone who came into the country illegally.
When pressed on whether he had the power to get Abrego Garcia back, Trump agreed that he could, but stated that he would “follow the law” and leave it up to his legal experts.
But according to The New York Times, the White House sent a “diplomatic note” to El Salvador officials regarding the return of Abrego Garcia, but was apparently turned down by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s administration because he is a citizen of their country.
Politicians from both sides have expressed disappointment in the Trump administration’s handling of the Abrego Garcia case, citing a lack of due process under the U.S. Constitution.
U.S. Rep. Blake Moore told his Utah constituents in a telephone town hall on Tuesday that he believes Trump should follow the higher court order and return Abrego Garcia.
“They made a mistake in one of the deportations, and the Supreme Court weighed in. There should be an honoring of the Supreme Court by saying this individual needs to be brought back and put through the process. That is something I clearly agree with,” he said, according to KSL.
Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen flew to El Salvador and met Abrego Garcia, and many democratic lawmakers have made the attempt to also do so, including Florida Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost.
“We’re in a situation where the administration has sent someone here to El Salvador by mistake, admitted to it, a Supreme Court decision has come down to say, ‘You need to facilitate the return of this man back to the United States so he can go through due process,’ and the administration is saying, ‘No, we’re not going to do it,” Frost said during his visit.
It appears to remain a tense issue for Democratic lawmakers, as evidenced by a post on X, where Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar swore at a Daily Caller News Foundation reporter after being asked if more of her colleagues should travel to El Salvador to “advocate on behalf of Abrego Garcia.”
The judge overseeing the high-profile deportation case postponed further discovery of information until April 30, regarding the Trump administration’s efforts to return Abrego Garcia to the United States.
But on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis denied the DOJ’s request for additional delay in the case and to “answer and respond to all outstanding discovery requests,” per CBS News. “By no later than Wednesday, May 7, plaintiffs may move for leave of court to conduct two additional depositions of individuals with knowledge and authority to testify regarding the matters.”
“For weeks, Defendants have sought refuge behind vague and unsubstantiated assertions of privilege, using them as a shield to obstruct discovery and evade compliance with this Court’s orders. Defendants have known, at least since last week, that this Court requires specific legal and factual showings to support any claim of privilege. Yet they have continued to rely on boilerplate assertions. That ends now,” she added.