After weeks of pressure to prove its assertion that the Maryland man the federal government deported to El Salvador last month is an MS-13 gang member, the Department of Justice released documents that it says prove its allegations.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was sent to a megaprison in El Salvador as part of the Trump administration’s program to deport alleged criminals. Abrego Garcia has denied that he is a gang member, and he has no criminal record.
The newly released documents include a “gang field interview sheet” from the Prince George’s County Police Department, which details an encounter with Abrego Garcia at a Home Depot in 2019. Police approached Garcia and several other individuals who were reportedly loitering in the business’s parking lot. Abrego Garcia claimed he was there seeking day labor work.
Police noted on the document that Abrego Garcia was wearing clothing with insignia that was “indicative of the Hispanic gang culture.” The officers also reportedly spoke with a reliable confidential source, who claimed that Abrego Garcia held the rank of “Chequeo” in the MS-13 gang.
The three other men who were in the parking lot with Abrego Garcia were also alleged to be gang members, based on one man’s criminal history and another’s tattoos, and information from the unidentified “reliable source.” All four men acknowledged that they were in the country illegally and did not have immigration documents on them.
Abrego Garcia was denied bond after his arrest outside the Home Depot, with the judge writing that the allegation that Abrego Garcia was a gang member “appears to be trustworthy and is supported by other evidence in the record” in the Prince George’s County police documents.
His immigration case wound its way through the legal process, until an immigration judge later that same year barred him from being returned to El Salvador because the defendant had proved that he had a “well-founded fear of future persecution” from gangs. He was granted permission to stay in the U.S. temporarily and obtain a work permit.
Also in 2019, Abrego Garcia was detained in connection with a murder investigation, but he was never charged with a crime.
“Mr. Abrego Garcia has never been convicted of a crime. If the government believes there is a legitimate case to be made, it should present that case in a court of law and have a judge review and decide his fate — not on social media,” his lawyers said in a statement, per NBC News.