“The mainstream media has peddled a sob story about Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The facts are he is an illegal alien from El Salvador, a MS-13 gang member, and has a history of violence,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in an April 16 statement. Arrest Set Stage for Deportation
Events that culminated in Abrego Garcia’s deportation this year date to 2019, police and court records say. The timeline began in March 2019, when Maryland police arrested Abrego Garcia in the company of alleged MS-13 gang members.
That group is a rival of the Barrio 18 gang, which was extorting his family, according to testimony that a judge found credible.
His mother, Cecelia, handcrafted stuffed tortillas called pupusas, the El Salvadoran national dish. After learning that her business was profitable, Barrio 18 repeatedly threatened the family, including Abrego Garcia’s father, a former police officer in El Salvador, the judge noted.
Because of ongoing threats from Barrio 18, Abrego Garcia left El Salvador. At his relatives’ urging, he fled to America—a step his brother had already taken. Several court records say he came to the United States in 2011, although Maryland police stated that Abrego Garcia set his arrival at a more specific date, about March 25, 2012.
He told police that he had “walked across the desert for many days” before illegally crossing the border near McAllen, Texas, at the state’s southern tip near the Mexico border. That’s according to a police record created when Abrego Garcia was arrested with verified MS-13 gang members in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
At the time—and since then—Abrego Garcia denied any connection to or knowledge of MS-13. Circumstances suggested otherwise, according to authorities.
Police checked five of 11 possible gang-affiliation criteria on a police form about Abrego Garcia.
He was arrested with a trio of men whom police say were loitering near a Home Depot store in Hyattsville, Maryland, on March 28, 2019. An officer immediately recognized one of the men as an MS-13 member, prompting further investigation.
“Officers know MS-13 gang members are only allowed to hang around other members or prospects for the gang,” the record reads.
Upon his arrest, Abrego Garcia was wearing a hoodie emblazoned with a design depicting “rolls of money covering the eyes, ears and mouth of the presidents on the separate denominations,” Such imagery is “indicative of the Hispanic gang culture,” according to the record, and is used to indicate “see no evil, hear no evil, and say no evil.”
Abrego Garcia was also wearing a Chicago Bulls hat to signify that he was an MS-13 member “in good standing,” police stated.
The National Day Laborer Organizing Network says authorities were trying to justify their actions by “falsely labeling” him as a gang member “without any real evidence.”
As of April 22, that group’s GoFundMe account to support the Abrego Garcia family had reached more than 90 percent of its $290,000 goal.
U.S. authorities say Abrego Garcia’s removal was overdue and was executed for just cause.
“A past proven and reliable source of information” told police that Abrego Garcia was active with the gang’s “Westerns clique” and gave his rank and gang nickname, “Chele.”
The report states that Abrego Garcia had $1,178 in cash and that marijuana was found at the scene. As a result of that arrest, authorities launched deportation proceedings against him.
Not ‘Mistakenly Deported,’ Official Says
Citing the circumstances, judges denied Abrego Garcia bail. They also rejected his request for asylum.
In October 2019, a judge granted an order withholding his removal, a much-misunderstood decision, homeland security adviser Stephen Miller said.
In El Salvador, Locals Proud of Efforts to Lock Up Gangs—Including for US
A withholding order “does not eliminate the deportation order,” he told reporters on April 14. Rather, the deportation order remains in place, while proceedings are put on hold pending further action from immigration officials.
While that 2019 withholding order blocked U.S. officials from sending Abrego Garcia back to El Salvador, he “could be indefinitely detained and removed to any other country in the world,” Miller said.
The judge’s decision to keep him out of El Salvador was based on evidence that he was in danger from the Barrio 18 gang there. But Miller said that threat is gone now because the Salvadoran government has worked to eradicate that gang.
Therefore, he said, the U.S. government had no reason to continue pausing the still-effective deportation order.
“This whole entire conversation has been wrong from the beginning because nobody was ‘mistakenly deported’ anywhere,” Miller said, referring to media headlines about the Abrego Garcia case.
DOJ Announces Largest Fentanyl Bust in US History Targeting Operation Led by Sinaloa CartelD
The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday announced the largest fentanyl bust in U.S. history.
The major drug bust marked “the most significant victory in our nation’s fight against drug trafficking,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said during a press conference at the DOJ.
In the multi-agency operation led by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), 11.5 kilos of fentanyl, including three million fentanyl pills, were seized. Approximately five million dollars in cash, 35 kilos of methamphetamine, 7.5 kilos of cocaine, 4.5 kilos of heroin, and 49 rifles and pistols were also seized.
Bondi said the operation targeted a drug trafficking organization operated by the Sinaloa cartel, which is considered one of the largest and most dangerous foreign terrorist organizations in the country. The cartel operated a sophisticated network to distribute lethal narcotics, and the sheer scale of potency of the drugs represented enough lethal doses to kill countless Americans, federal authorities said.
Of the 16 people arrested in the operation, six are in the United States illegally.
The alleged leader of the drug trafficking organization, Heriberto Salazar Amaya, was living in Salem, Oregon. An illegal immigrant from Mexico, Amaya has been deported twice.
Bondi accused the defendants of flooding the country with “weapons of mass destruction,” with officials noting that the drugs were distributed in New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. All of the fentanyl pills were stamped as oxycodone and came in various strengths. The attorney general said the precursors were made in China, sent to Mexico, and ultimately entered the United States.
She praised the DEA agents who spent months investigating the drug and weapons trafficking operation. Law enforcement put in more than 55,000 hours of investigative work, she said.
Indian forces reportedly fired missiles across the border into Pakistan and the Pakistani-administered territory of Kashmir early Wednesday morning local time, killing at least eight people. Pakistan vowed to retaliate.
The attack marks a rise in tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors, who have a longstanding dispute over the mountainous region of Kashmir. India and Pakistan have fought three wars over Kashmir since the two nations were divided from former British India in 1947.
India said it struck nine sites in Punjab and Kashmir, targeting infrastructure used by militants linked to last month’s deadly attack in the resort town of Pahalgam (part of Indian-administered Kashmir) that killed 26 people. Pakistan reported civilian casualties in at least five locations. India has accused Pakistan of supporting separatist violence, while Pakistan denied association with the incident.
Since the Pahalgam attack, the two sides have scaled back diplomatic ties, closed airspace to each other, and exchanged fire across the Line of Control, raising fears of broader conflict.
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