Baltimore mayor, union condemn mistaken deportation of Maryland father to El Salvador

By Mike Hellgren

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    BALTIMORE (WJZ) — The government’s mistaken deportation of a Maryland father to El Salvador has drawn new outrage from Baltimore’s mayor and some members of the Maryland Congressional delegation for what they see as sloppy immigration enforcement.

“We know when you just look at a person and based on their looks and think that person is less than, that’s how you end up with slavery, that’s how you end up with the Holocaust and they are going down a very, very dangerous road, a road that we should not be talking about going down in 2025,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said. “And everybody, Republican or Democrat, should be concerned that people who were not supposed to be put on those planes and sent out of this country had that happen to them, period.”

Abrego Garcia’s arrest Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, had just left his job as a sheet metal worker in Baltimore City and picked up his 5-year-old son from his grandmother’s home before his arrest in Beltsville, Maryland, three weeks ago.

His union, SMART, wrote in a statement, “Kilmar, our Local 100 brother, is a resident of Maryland and a sheet metal apprentice who works full-time to support his wife and five-year-old son, who has autism and a hearing impairment. He came to the United States as a teenager 15 years ago, and it is my understanding that he was legally authorized to live and work in this country and had fully complied with his responsibilities under the law. He did not have a criminal record and is, in fact, an example of the hard work that SMART members pride themselves on. And yet, the Trump Administration was still aware of his protected status, deported him to El Salvador.”

Under oath, Homeland Security official Robert Cerna declared in court documents, this was an “administrative error… This was an oversight.”

Abrego Garcia was flown to a notorious prison in El Salvador, and his wife, who recognized him in photos she saw on the news, fears for his life.

“When I saw him, I immediately broke down because I knew it was him,” she told CBS News in an exclusive interview.

“I was scared. I was very scared because I’ve seen news of that prison, and I know they take criminals there—and my husband is not a criminal,” his wife said.

Abrego Garcia first came to Maryland as a teenager to live with his brother. According to court documents, he entered the country illegally.

In 2019, he was arrested at a Home Depot in Hyattsville. Authorities alleged, based on an informant, that he was a member of MS-13.

A judge later determined he was not a gang member and prohibited the U.S. from deporting him, saying he could be targeted by gangs if sent back to El Salvador.

Despite that, the Trump administration doubled down.

This week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called Abrego Garcia “a leader in the brutal MS-13 gang” and said “he is involved in human trafficking.”

Abrego Garcia’s attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg denied that his client is a member of any gang.

“The allegations against him are based on whispers and shadows,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said.

Maryland’s Congressional delegation reacts Democratic lawmakers condemned the mistaken deportation.

“This shows the complete disregard of the Trump administration to any kind of due process,” Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a video posted on X.

“He was afraid of gangs in El Salvador and yet that was precisely where they sent him,” said Representative Jamie Raskin. “He didn’t get a hearing, and this is what happens when you don’t have due process. You have cases of mistaken identity and people swept up in it.”

At a telephone town hall, Republican Andy Harris backed the Trump administration’s decision and criticized media coverage of the case.

“To classify them not as a gang member, as a Maryland illegal alien gang member, but as a Maryland father is just an attempt to whitewash the need to deport criminal illegal aliens,” Harris said.

Maryland court hearing The Trump administration said in court filings that there is nothing they can do to force El Salvador to return Abrego Garcia.

A judge will hear arguments in the case in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, scheduled for Friday afternoon.

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