A mother in Maryland recently experienced two urgent phone calls: one from her husband, informing her that he had been pulled over by authorities after completing his construction work shift. The second call came from Homeland Security, instructing her that she had a mere ten minutes to collect their five-year-old son, who was in the vehicle with her husband.
Jennifer Stefania Vasquez Sura swiftly rushed to her husband’s location to quickly place their tearful child into a car seat and bid farewell to her husband, who was also weeping.
“If you are strong, I will be strong,” were the final words he spoke to Vasquez Sura as he was placed in handcuffs.
Now, the repercussions of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s arrest on March 12 and his subsequent deportation to El Salvador – an action the Trump administration acknowledges as a mistake – have extended far beyond their family, causing significant distress within the south-central Maryland community.
District Judge Paula Xinis issued a ruling on Friday mandating that Abrego Garcia, a sheet metal worker, be returned to the United States no later than 11:59 p.m. on Monday. According to a court filing, the Trump administration has filed an appeal against this ruling, meaning the case will soon be reviewed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Several years prior to his arrest, the Prince George’s County Police Department had labeled Abrego Garcia as a gang member. This designation was partly based on the fact that he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie, and also on the testimony of an informant who claimed he was an active member of the MS-13 gang – an accusation his legal representatives have consistently denied, as stated in a recent court document. However, in 2
