The Trump administration has released numerous documents allegedly linking Kilmar Abrego Garcia — a Maryland man who was recently deported to El Salvador — to the notorious MS-13 gang.
Attorney General Pam Bondi shared arrest records to social media Wednesday, which claim Abrego Garcia was identified as an active member of MS-13 after being arrested in 2019 in connection to a murder investigation.
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One of the documents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security states that authorities made contact with Abrego Garcia and two other individuals outside of a Maryland Home Depot, and they all "freely admitted being citizens" of El Salvador and "were present in the United States illegally." They were all then taken into custody.
According to the Prince Georges County Police Department in Maryland, Abrego Garcia was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat at the time of his arrest, which allegedly symbolizes a "member in good standing" with MS-13. Authorities claim Abrego Garcia was also wearing a hoodie that symbolized what they describe as being "indicative" of Hispanic gang culture.
The document then states that a confidential source confirmed to police that Abrego Garcia was an active member of MS-13. He was ultimately charged with being in the U.S. illegally and had "no immigration history" at his time of arrest, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
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Abrego Garcia was one of over 200 individuals deported to El Salvador nearly one month ago. Despite his undocumented status, Abrego Garcia has an American wife and three children. Additionally, he had a court order protecting him from deportation to El Salvador due to credible fears for his life if he returned.
The Trump administration admittedly said Abrego Garcia was deported by accident due to a "administrative error." However, the White House has since backtracked on that admission and is seemingly ignoring a recent Supreme Court order for the government to "facilitate" Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S.
"The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders — especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it," the judge overseeing the case wrote on Wednesday.
Speaking Wednesday during a White House briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt referenced the newly-released documents related to Abrego Garcia's arrest record and accused Democrats and the media of wrongly labeling him as a "Maryland father."
"There is no Maryland father," she told reporters. "Let me reiterate, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an illegal alien MS-13 gang member and foreign terrorist who was deported back to his home country."
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"The basic fact that he was illegally inside our country and had a lawful deportation order made him subject to removal back to his home country of El Salvador," Leavitt added. "And if he ever ends up back in the United States, he would immediately be deported again. Nothing will change the fact that Abrego Garcia will never be a Maryland father, he will never live in the United States of America again."
Leavitt was joined at the press briefing by Patty Morin, the mother of a Maryland woman who was raped and murdered in 2023 by a man accused of entering the U.S. illegally. While the case does not have ties to Abrego Garcia, Morin used her daughter's death to highlight the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration.
"These are the kind of criminals President Trump wants to remove from our country," Morin said. "These are the kind of criminals that we need to remove from our country. We are American citizens. Why should we allow people like this — violent criminals that have no conscience at all — to murder our mothers, our sisters, our daughters? I don't understand why there's any kind of problem with this."
WATCH | Mother of murdered Maryland woman speaks at White House press briefing
