Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador who was illegally deported from the United States on March 15, 2025, in what the Trump administration called "an administrative error." He was imprisoned without trial in the Salvadoran maximum security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), despite never having been charged with or convicted of a crime in either country, as part of an agreement between the two countries that El Salvador imprison U.S. deportees there for payment. The administration has defended the deportation in the press by accusing him of membership in the MS-13 gang, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization—an accusation based on a bail determination made during a 2019 immigration court proceeding, which Abrego Garcia contested.
A story that’s stirring outrage across the U.S. —
Senator Chris Van Hollen has met with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran..
