A GoFundMe campaign to support the wife of an illegal alien and accused gang member who was deported to a Salvadoran prison has raised nearly $220,000 from nearly 4,000 individual donors.
According to the website, Kilmer Abrego Garcia, who was an unlawfully present citizen of El Salvador living in Maryland, was “a loving father, husband, son, brother, union construction co-worker, and CASA member” who was “wrongfully disappeared and deported, torn from his family due to a shocking administrative error by the U.S. government.”
While the Trump administration has admitted they made a clerical mistake that ended up with Abrego Garcia being deported to the Salvadoran prison for terrorists rather than another facility elsewhere, the White House has maintained he is a known gang member and a dangerous individual.
The National Day Laborer Organizing Network, the group listed as the GoFundMe’s organizer, cited his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura’s work schedule and their children’s medical problems as reasons why they need the public’s financial support following her husband’s deportation.
Oh - that, and their activism efforts, which aren’t cheap.
“We're raising funds to support Kilmar’s family survive this unimaginable crisis. Your donation will help cover urgent living expenses and advocacy efforts to reunite Kilmar with his family,” the donation page reads.
While the page paints a picture of a loving family man who has been wrongfully deported and imprisoned, the Department of Homeland Security released documents this week that suggest otherwise, including a request for a restraining order Vasquez Sura filed against her husband back in 2021, accusing him of physically assaulting her.
In the written domestic violence allegations filed in court by Jennifer Vasquez Sura just four years ago, Abrego Garcia "punched and scratched" her, "ripped off" her shirt and shorts, "grabbed and bruised" her, and hit her in the eye, leaving her bleeding. At the time, Vasquez said the incident was just the latest in a string of repeated physical assaults. She detailed two other incidents from 2020, writing, "In November 2020, he hit me with his work boot,” and “In August 2020, he hit me in the eye leaving a purple eye."
"At this point, I am afraid to be close to him. I have multiple photos/videos of how violent he can be and all the bruises he [has] left me,” she alleged in the court filing.
The case was ultimately dismissed after Vasquez failed to appear for a final hearing.
In addition to the restraining order, the Department of Homeland Security under the Trump administration also released a Prince George's County Police Department interview sheet explaining local police in Maryland had found Abrego Garcia loitering in a Home Depot parking lot with other known MS-13 gang members in possession of illicit drugs back in 2019 while police were investigating a murder. Police claimed they linked him with an MS-13 clique through a "past proven and reliable source” who reportedly identified Abrego Garcia as a ranking member of the gang.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have claimed the government has provided no definitive proof of his gang affiliation and cited the fact that he has no known criminal record in the U.S. - besides, of course, having come into the country unlawfully and living here without legal status. Trump administration officials have admitted Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador due to an “administrative error” and should have been deported elsewhere, but have continued to state that Abrego Garcia has no legal status in the U.S. and is a public danger.
For their part, the Supreme Court ruled he had been deported in error and upheld a lower court ruling ordering the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. for due process. In response, the White House has said that he is now a Salvadoran national who has been returned to his home country and is therefore outside their legal jurisdiction, maintaining that he is a known gang member.