Kilmar Abrego Garcia latest: Trump administration ordered to hand over evidence by Monday
Legal fight continues in Abrego Garcia deportation case
The legal fight continues in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia deportation case.
WASHINGTON - The deadline for the Trump administration to hand over information to Kilmar Abrego Garcia's legal team as the fight to return him to the United States looms Monday.
What we know:
Abrego Garcia's legal team has asked the government to provide sworn statements about what they have done and plan to do to secure his release from custody in El Salvador.
After a week-long delay in discovery, Judge Paula Xinis ordered the government to provide those responses by no later than Monday.
All eyes turn to the Department of Justice as President Donald Trump demurs when asked directly about Abrego Garcia — instead saying it's entirely in the attorney general's hands.
"I have the power to ask for him to come back if I'm instructed by the attorney general that it's legal to do so but the decision as to whether or not he should come back will be the head of El Salvador. He's a very capable man," said Trump on Sunday.
The White House continues to attack Abrego Garcia personally. Over the weekend they posted on social media a picture of him with the caption MS-13. Abrego Garcia continues to deny his membership in the transnational gang. The Department of Homeland Security has released information about Abrego Garcia's alleged domestic abuse.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia court hearing
Dig deeper:
FOX 5 obtained a recording from a 2020 court hearing where Abrego Garcia's wife Jennifer Vasquez is pleading with a judge for a protective order for herself and her children.
"During the time that he was arrested, I was pregnant at that time and I could tell a little change in him, his way of treating me over the phone. Once he—maybe a month after he was out—he changed a lot with me and my kids. Like he would yell at them, yell at me, any little thing that would bother him," Vasquez can be heard saying.
In response to the leaked audio, Jennifer issued a statement saying:
"After the trauma of his time in ICE detention and the struggles we faced during the pandemic, I sought a temporary protective order, but through counseling and faith, Kilmar and I healed, reunited as a stronger couple, and now our family needs him home."
The allegations of abuse are separate from Abrego Garcia's current lawsuit claiming he was denied due process when he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador.
Jennifer continues to fight for Abrego Garcia's return, showing up to court hearings and speaking on Capitol Hill. She says she wants his safe return for their family, including a five-year-old son they share together.
Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia?
The backstory:
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a 29-year-old El Salvadorian national. He fled his home country and came to the U.S. when he was 16. He has since lived in Maryland. He has three children and a wife, Jennifer Vasquez.
On March 12, Abrego Garcia was arrested in Baltimore after working a shift as a sheet metal apprentice and picking up his 5-year-old son, who has autism and other disabilities, from his grandmother’s house, according to his lawyers.
He was then sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT which activists say is rife with abuses. Three days later, he was deported.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement say they removed him to a Salvadoran prison over a 2019 accusation that he was in the MS-13 gang. Authorities based the accusation on his tattoos, a Chicago Bulls hoodie and the word of a criminal informant.
Abrego Garcia's ties to MS-13 were never proven and he has repeatedly denied being a gang member. His lawyers argue that the U.S. government "has never produced an iota of evidence" that he is affiliated with MS-13 or any other street gang.
His eventual expulsion to El Salvador violated a U.S. immigration judge’s order in 2019 that shielded him from deportation to his native country. The judge ruled that Abrego Garcia had credible fears of being killed if he returned to El Salvador.
Abrego-Garcia has no criminal record in the U.S. outside of a few traffic violations. He had regularly checked in with immigration authorities.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials later admitted in a court filing that his deportation was due to an "administrative error" but the Trump administration has since maintained that there is nothing they can do to bring him back.
What's next:
The judge also ordered depositions to be completed by Friday. FOX 5 DC has reached out to Abrego Garcia's legal team about when those are scheduled but have not yet heard back.
The Source: This story includes reporting from FOX 5 DC Legal Correspondent Katie Barlow.