Attorney General Pam Bondi has insisted the family of alleged MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia is “safer” now that he has been deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador’s notorious megaprison.
The 29-year-old father, who was mistakenly booted from the US last month due to an administrative error, was previously accused of physically abusing his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, back in 2021, the Department of Homeland Security revealed Wednesday.
Even though Abrego Garcia’s wife has still been pushing for him to be brought back to the United States, Bondi suggested his family were better off without him.
“America is safer because he is gone,” Bondi told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Wednesday night.
“Maryland is safer because he is gone. And that woman that he is married to and that child he had with her, they are safer tonight because he is out of our country and sitting in El Salvador where he belongs.”
Her remarks came soon after the Trump admin released details of a protective restraining order that Abrego Garcia’s wife had applied for following a domestic incident at their home in front of their then-infant on May 4, 2021.
In the petition for the order, Vasquez Sura alleged her husband had punched, scratched and grabbed her during the ordeal.
“I was watching on my laptop, and he yelled at me to turn it off, I told him I wasn’t sleepy, he got angry, reached over shut and threw my laptop on the floor, and the baby started to cry because he was putting pressure on him, my [immediate] reaction was to push him off of us, and he then punched, [scratched] me on my left eye, leaning me bleeding,” she detailed in her own handwriting, according to the petition.
The Department of Homeland Security posted screenshots of the order on X, saying it was proof that Abrego Garcia “had a history of violence and was not the upstanding ‘Maryland Man’ the media has portrayed him as.”
Bondi, too, released evidence of Abrego Garcia’s alleged ties to MS-13 — including that he held the rank “Chequeo” and the street name “Chele” within the vicious criminal organization.
It comes after the US Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return from his native El Salvador after Washington acknowledged he was deported due to an administrative error.
Abrego Garcia, who left El Salvador at age 16, was granted a protective order in 2019 to continue living in the US and has never been charged with or convicted of any crime.
His lawyers have denied the Justice Department’s allegation that he is a member of the criminal gang MS-13.
Despite admitting the “clerical error” in Abrego Garcia’s deportation, the White House has still insisted he should remain in El Salvador.
His wife, for her part, has argued that the protective order she applied for several years back — which was later dismissed — was not justification to have him booted from the US.
“That is not a justification for ICE’s action of abducting him and deporting him to a country where he was supposed to be protected from deportation,” she said.
“Kilmar has always been a loving partner and father, and I will continue to stand by him and demand justice for him.”
Vasquez Sura added that when she asked for protection from Abrego Garcia in 2021 she was “acting out of caution after a disagreement with Kilmar … in case things escalated” after she survived domestic abuse “in a previous relationship.”
“Things did not escalate, and I decided not to follow through with the civil court process. We were able to work through this situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling,” she said.
“Our marriage only grew stronger in the years that followed. No one is perfect, and no marriage is perfect.”
Meanwhile, Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador on Wednesday to meet with senior officials and advocate for Abrego Garcia’s release, but was told by El Salvador’s Vice President Felix Ulloa that he could not authorize a visit or a call with Abrego Garcia.
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