Since his presidential campaign for the 2016 election, Donald Trump has been very clear on what his plans and opinions were on immigrants. To get them out and to keep them out. In the most recent news, talk of a man “mistakenly” deported to a maximum security prison outside of the U.S, has been circulating. The executive branch’s response raised some questions about what direction this country is going in terms of balance of powers.

Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia and Where is he Now?

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a 29-year-old from Los Nogales, El Salvador. Before he moved to the United States 14 years ago, he worked for his family at their restaurant. It was there that the local gang, Barrio 18, began extorting and threatening his family, according to Gracia and his family. He illegally crossed the border in Texas in 2012 at just 16 and went to live with his brother, a U.S citizen, in Maryland. In the years he’s been in the U.S he married, worked as a sheet metal apprentice, and had 3 children. 

In 2019, he and three other men were arrested in a parking lot of Home Depot for loitering. Officers deemed him to be a gang member, despite him having no criminal records at the time and his insistence that he was there looking for work. One of the two other men he was arrested alongside with, was known to the police as a member of the MS-13 gang. In the police report it’s written that Garcia was wearing a “Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie with rolls of money covering the eyes, ears and mouth of the presidents.” The police deemed this as “indicative of hispanic gang culture.” One officer also added that the accusations were in fact solid based “on tattoos, clothing, as well as information from a source,” and how Garcia “displayed traits associated with MS-13 gang culture.” The aforementioned “source” was never proven to be reliable or proved or have any standing. None of the 4 men were formally arrested.

Following this, an immigration judge granted Gracia protection from deportation as the gangs in his hometown posed a threat to his life. He was also given a permit to work in the U.S which is when he began working in construction and joined the local union.

The Hyattsville Police Department began looking into Abrego Garcia for a homicide a few years later. He denied having anything to do with the case and the police in turn handed him over to ICE on March 13, 2025. From there he was almost immediately sent to a maximum security prison.

The CECOT

The CECOT, which in english stands for Terrorism Confinement Center, is located in El Salvador. The conditions of living in this prison have raised alarms and the director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch, Juanita Goebertus, declared a human rights watch on the facility. Over her countless trips to El Salvador, Goebertus reported that detainees are denied communications to their family and lawyers, and only appear in court virtually and with hundreds of other prisoners all at once. When the prison opened at the beginning of 2023 its capacity was at 20,000 and has since doubled without any new construction. The government of El Salvador released a statement saying the “terrorists” will “never leave.” There’s been zero report of any detainees leaving the prison and it continues to accept more and more people. 

The only video footage from inside the prison are from the very few journalists and social media influencers allowed to visit under extremely controlled circumstances. The detainees are allowed out of their cells for 30 minutes a day and if they’re in solitary confinement, it’s 24 hours in a pitch black room. There’s been reports of “torture, ill-treatment, incommunicado detention, severe violations of due process and inhumane conditions, such as lack of access to adequate healthcare and food.” Most family members of the people who enter the CECOT have not heard from them since the start of their incarceration.

The Supreme Court’s Ruling

Trump’s administration described Abrego Garcia’s false deportation as “an administrative error.” They remained adamant, however, that he is a part of the MS-13 gang. His lawyer pointed out that the criminal informant that authorities claimed had confirmed Garcia’s involvement with the gang, said he was a member in Long Island but Garcia had reportedly never even been. 

On the tenth of April, the Supreme Court ruled 9 to 0 that the Trump Administration must facilitate Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return to his home in the United States. It’s been said that unanimous voting in SCOTUS is rare, but it actually happens “year after year,” usually having to do with smaller cases that don’t receive media attention. However, the Supreme Court is known to generally lean conservative in many cases, and this specific case receiving a 9-0 vote was a large shock to the media. 

The Government’s Response

In a scramble to prove to the media– and not a court– how his deportation was in fact valid, the Department of Homeland Security released the documents from a temporary protection order Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, filed in 2021. She was quick to release a statement saying, “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… Things did not escalate, and I decided not to follow through with the civil court process.” The documents released to the public contained the address of the Garcia-Sura home unredacted. Garcia’s wife and children had to then be taken into protective custody and are now staying in a safehouse.

Trump met with the President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, in the Oval Office on April 14, a month after Garcia’s deportation and a few days after the Supreme Court’s ruling. Pam Bondi, the U.S Attorney General, stated “[It’s] up to El Salvador, if they want to return him. That’s not up to us.” When asked about the court’s ruling, Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said “The foreign policy of the United States is conducted by the President of the United States, not by a court.” This statement goes directly against the constitution’s checks and balances system, which ensures no single branch has more power than the others. Bukele’s response to a similar question was that returning Abrego Garcia home was in the likeness of “smuggling a terrorist into the United States.” 

Conclusion

A senator from Maryland, Chris Van Hollen, was able to meet with Garcia on April 17. The senator posted a photo of the two talking and then later released a quote, “I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar… Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.” Minutes before Sen. Van Hollen posted the image, Bukele released similar photos of the meeting saying, “Now that he’s been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody.”

Whether or not you believe that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a part of the MS-13 gang, he was not given due process. The Constitution clearly states, “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury…” Trump and his administration’s continuous disregard of the Constitution and system of checks and balances goes against exactly what the President is supposed to swear on, to uphold the Constitution.

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