The Department of Justice released new documents with evidence of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia's membership in the MS-13 gang, amid ongoing legal efforts to return him to the U.S. after his deportation.
Key Details:
Abrego Garcia, who entered the U.S. illegally in 2011, was deported to El Salvador in March after courts found him to be a public danger due to gang ties.
A Board of Immigration Appeals ruling in 2019 upheld findings that he was a "verified member" of MS-13, despite his attempts to dispute the classification.
DOJ and DHS documents cite gang-related clothing, testimony from a reliable informant, and even a domestic violence restraining order filed by his wife.
Diving Deeper:
The Department of Justice on Wednesday released documents showing what immigration officials, police, and federal judges have long alleged: that Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a previously deported illegal immigrant, is a member of the violent MS-13 gang.
Abrego Garcia, who was removed from the U.S. in March and sent back to his native El Salvador, had long denied his gang affiliations. But the newly released files paint a different picture--one of a man embedded in MS-13's criminal network, known by the moniker "Chele" and reportedly holding the rank of "Chequeo" within the gang's Westerns clique.
Included in the dossier is a 2019 ruling by the Board of Immigration Appeals that upheld an immigration judge's determination of Abrego Garcia's gang ties, stating he had failed to prove he was not a "danger to property or persons." That judgment followed his 2019 arrest in a Home Depot parking lot in Prince George's County, Maryland. Police noted his attire--specifically a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie with images of cash-covered faces--as gang-related symbols. A trusted informant corroborated his gang affiliation during that arrest.
Adding to the DOJ's case, the Department of Homeland Security released records showing that Abrego Garcia's wife had sought a domestic violence restraining order against him, further undermining his claims of being no threat to the public.
It gets worse, reports David Strom.
@MrAndyNgo
In 2022, Kilmar Abrego Garcia was detained in Tennessee on suspicion of human trafficking. The TN Highway Patrol was instructed to release him and the seven other people in the car by Biden's FBI. Garcia was transporting them from Texas to Maryland.
The Tennessee Star's report on the human trafficking allegation:
The Tennessee Star learned on Wednesday that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an alleged member of the Central American gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) who was deported to El Salvador under President Donald Trump amid legal action claiming the removal was by mistake, was suspected of being engaged in human trafficking by a Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) officer who detained him in December 2022, leading the THP to contact the FBI for guidance. Within two hours, the FBI ultimately requested the THP release Garcia and the passengers in his vehicle. THP complied with the request.
The Star learned from sources familiar with the incident that Abrego Garcia was stopped for an unknown reason on December 6, 2022, and that the THP officer responsible for the stop immediately discovered Abrego Garcia was transporting seven passengers, with eight individuals inside the vehicle.
During a nearly two-hour traffic stop, the THP officer determined that Abrego Garcia (pictured above) was operating the vehicle without a valid driver's license and began searching for information about him.
Something about the traffic stop caused concern in the mind of the THP officer that other law enforcement agencies should be alerted. One source told The Star that THP ultimately discovered Abrego Garcia was on a terrorist watch list, but could not locate Abrego Garcia on a deportation list. Another source told The Star that THP did not discover Abrego Garcia on a terrorist watch list but that another one of the seven passengers in the vehicle may have been on a terrorist watch list.
So why wasn't he and the passengers in the car arrested and deported?
Because Christoper Wray's FBI ordered the cops to release them all:
THP subsequently called the FBI, which was then led by former Director Christopher Wray under the Biden administration. The FBI instructed the THP officers at the scene to capture photographs of all eight people in the vehicle and document its contents.
Once the photographs were captured, this source told The Star that the FBI requested THP release all eight individuals and that the THP officers complied with this request.
Chris Van Hollen was told by El Salvadoran officials to go piss up a rope.