Kilmar Abrego Garcia's family gets a short reunion and heartbreak amid immigration crackdown

Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, held hands tightly as they arrived at Baltimore's federal building just after sunrise Monday morning to hundreds of supporters and a bank of television cameras. 

They had only been reunited for a little more than two days since the arrest that upended their lives. 

Abrego Garcia was taken to an ICE facility in Virginia, where he is now being held. According to the Department of Homeland Security, he is being processed for deportation to Uganda.

Judge Paula Xinis issued an oral order that prevents the Trump administration from moving Abrego Garcia from the facility in Virginia.  

Vasquez Sura has given interviews to multiple television networks and newspapers. She stood side-by-side with activists and lawmakers over the past five months as she tried to free her husband.

"This was a miracle. Thank you to god and thank you to the community," Kilmar Abrego Garcia told the crowd through a translator. "Thank you to my life partner and wife, Jennifer."

Abrego Garcia said he was thankful for the few days at home with his wife, brother, mother, and other family members.

"Those moments will continue to give me hope to continue in this fight," Abrego Garcia said. "To all the families who have been separated or to all the families that have been threatened with family separation, this administration has hit us hard."

Minutes later, he headed up the steps of the federal building to check in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), mobbed by reporters and supporters.

Lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said he knew Abrego Garcia would likely be detained but felt his client had no choice but to head to the sixth floor.

Abrego Garcia and his wife hugged and kissed as they entered the building, free from the crowd. 

Sandoval-Moshenberg said the sixth floor had been blocked off. Within one minute, he said, agents took Abrego Garcia into custody without explanation or paperwork. 

Abrego Garcia's wife, lawyer, and advocates from CASA stayed in the building for a few minutes before heading downstairs.

Vasquez Sura was in tears. 

CASA members formed a human chain around her, escorting her as media followed to a waiting SUV near CFG Bank Arena. 

She then sped off without comment. 

"Jennifer firmly looked the officers in the face and said, 'Remember this moment when you go home and see your kids. You have once again kidnapped my husband," Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, CASA's chief of organizing and leadership, later told the crowd, 

How it started 

Abrego Garcia has been at the center of a political firestorm since March. 

That is when federal agents took him into custody shortly after he left work as a sheet metal apprentice in Baltimore. He had picked up his son, and they were blocks from his home in Beltsville, Prince George's County, at the time. 

Abrego Garcia, now 30, entered the United States illegally as a teenager to be with his family in Maryland. 

He claimed he was being persecuted by gangs in his native El Salvador. An immigration judge in Baltimore issued an order in 2019 prohibiting him from being deported to his home country. 

The Trump administration admits his March deportation to the notoriously violent CECOT prison there, where Abrego Garcia said he was tortured, was a mistake. 

They fought his return to the United States and only brought him back in June to face charges in a human smuggling case out of Tennessee. 

Abrego Garcia's lawyers have asked for that case to be dismissed, calling it a "vindictive" prosecution. 

Trump reaction 

The Trump administration doubled down on its position that Abrego Garcia should be deported in tweets and comments from the White House minutes after Abrego Garcia was taken back into custody. 

"Today, ICE law enforcement arrested Kilmar Abrego Garcia and are processing him for deportation," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem tweeted. "President Trump is not going to allow this illegal alien, who is an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator, to terrorize American citizens any longer."

The Department of Homeland Security tweeted a separate thread of allegations against Abrego Garcia and wrote, "He will be processed for removal to Uganda."

At a news briefing from the Oval Office, President Trump referenced Abrego Garcia's wife and domestic abuse allegations. 

"We have that under control," Trump said. 

Mr. Trump then asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to comment. 

"He will no longer terrorize our country. He's currently charged with human smuggling, including children," Bondi said. "The guy needs to be in prison. He doesn't need to be on the streets like all these liberals want him to be."

Rep. Andy Harris, Maryland's lone Republican in Congress, tweeted, "Given Kilmar Abrego Garcia's ties to MS-13, a history of domestic abuse, and an  indictment for human smuggling, I commend ICE for upholding the law and protecting American communities—while respecting Garcia's request not to be returned to his home country of El Salvador."

Abrego Garcia's attorneys strongly deny any MS-13 gang affiliation. 

His wife previously issued a statement to CBS News about the domestic abuse allegations. 

"After surviving domestic violence in a previous relationship, I acted out of caution after a disagreement with Kilmar by seeking a civil protective order in case things escalated," Vasquez Sura said. "Things did not escalate, and I decided not to follow through with the civil court process. We were able to work through this situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling. 

Vazquez Sura continued, "Our marriage only grew stronger in the years that followed. No one is perfect, and no marriage is perfect. That is not a justification for ICE's action of abducting him and deporting him to a country where he was supposed to be protected from deportation. Kilmar has always been a loving partner and father, and I will continue to stand by him and demand justice for him."

Support in Baltimore 

Baltimore City Councilmember Odette Ramos was among the many who crowded the plaza in front of the federal building on Monday. 

"Kilmar is so brave, and his family is so brave," Ramos said. "He's inspirational to us because he's still hoping for the best for himself and for his family. He knows that what is happening to him is wrong, but he wants to make sure that we continue to fight, and so, he inspires us."

Ramos said it is important that the community cares for his family. 

"My hope and prayer is that this all works out, and the Justice Department and ICE really understand the error of their ways," Ramos said. "We will continue to fight for Kilmar, but that's what he wants for our entire immigrant community and for our democracy."

Senator Chris Van Hollen, who visited Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, said, "While ICE is holding Kilmar Abrego Garcia and keeping his lawyers in the dark as to what is next for him, Administration officials continue to spread lies about the facts in his case. Instead of spewing unproven allegations in the press and social media, the Trump Administration needs to put up or shut up in court and allow Mr. Abrego Garcia the opportunity to defend himself. That is the right to due process that he and everyone else living in America is afforded by our Constitution, and we will keep fighting to ensure that right is honored."

Congressman Glenn Ivey, the Democrat who represents Abrego Garcia's home in Prince George's County, showed up at the rally and spoke to the crowd. 

"He should be in his house this morning, not worried about being deported anywhere, not worried about injustice anywhere, not worried about the pressure and the vengeance of the Department of Justice and the Trump Administration. He should be able to get his due process and go forward from there," Ivey said.  "Today, we keep the fight going. We don't give up."

Uncertain future 

Abrego Garcia's attorneys were finally able to determine where he had been taken after being detained in Baltimore. They said the government transported him to a facility in Virginia.

They asked Judge Paula Xinis that he cannot be moved more than 200 miles from the Greenbelt courthouse where she was deciding key elements of their emergency lawsuit to stop his deportation.

Judge Xinis agreed and told Department of Justice lawyers they are "absolutely forbidden" from removing him from the continental United States for now. 

Xinis said she is worried Abrego Garcia could be jailed or tortured in Uganda without explicit protections from that country.

Abrego Garcia's legal team said the government offered them a plea deal where he would be sent to Costa Rica if he pleaded guilty in the human smuggling case and agreed to serve any jail time handed down to him.

"Holding Costa Rica as a carrot and using Uganda as a stick to try to coerce him to plead guilty to a crime is such clear evidence that they're weaponizing the immigration system on a way that is completely unconstitutional," his lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said.