SMART union demands the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia after illegal deportation
No evidence has been presented to connect Abrego Garcia to MS-13.
The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART) is calling on Americans to contact their representatives and senators to demand the Trump administration facilitate the immediate return of a Maryland man wrongfully deported to El Salvador.
Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadorian national legally living in the U.S. with no criminal record, was arrested by ICE agents in Baltimore last month on accusations of being an MS-13 gang member. Abrego Garcia, who hasn’t been charged or convicted of any crime, has since been detained at the Center for Terrorism Confinement, a maximum-security prison accused by human rights groups of torture and due process violations.
No evidence has been presented to connect Abrego Garcia to MS-13, an international criminal gang designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. The allegation is based on Abrego Garcia’s 2019 arrest – for which he was never charged – after a confidential informant claimed he was a member of an MS-13 chapter in New York, despite never living there. Court filings suggest Abrego Garcia was profiled for wearing a Chicago Bulls hat at the time of his 2019 arrest.
“Abrego Garcia is a SMART Local 100 first-year apprentice who currently works full-time to support his young family,” SMART said in a statement. “He came to the United States as a teenager 15 years ago, and according to his attorneys, 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 in the United States.”
“Like many of us, Abrego Garcia works full-time to support his wife and his five-year-old son. SMART is demanding that he is returned to his family. Please take a few minutes to ask your congressional representatives to do the same!”
Sean McGarvey, the president of North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), which represents more than 3 million workers in the U.S. and Canada, demanded Abrego Garcia be returned to the U.S. during their legislative conference last week in Washington, D.C.
“We need to make our voices heard,” McGarvey said. “We’re not red, we’re not blue, we’re the building trades; the backbone of America. You want to build a five billion dollar data center? Want more six-figure careers with healthcare, retirement and no college debt? You don’t call Elon Musk! You call us!”
“And yeah that means all of us. All of us! Including our brother, SMART apprentice Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who we demand to be returned to us and his family now! Bring him home!” McGarvey said to a crowd who stood and applauded him.
Those interested in contacting their representatives and senators in regard to Abrego Garcia’s wrongful detention can click here.
On March 31, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials admitted in a court filing that Abrego Garcia was wrongfully arrested and deported due to what they called an “administrative error.”
Despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous decision last week to demand the Trump administration “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S “as soon as possible,” President Donald Trump and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele – who is self-described as the “world’s coolest dictator” and a “Philosopher King” – show no sign of complying with the court’s order.
“The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” Bukele, while seated next to Trump, told reporters at the White House. “I don't have the power to return him to the United States.”
Shortly before Monday’s media event at the Oval Office, Trump was captured on video telling Bukele he wants to send “homegrown criminals” to El Salvador and suggested to Bukele that he expand the maximum-security prison, which is located a little over an hour’s drive away from the capital city of San Salvador.
“Homegrowns are next. The homegrowns. You got to build about five more places. It's not big enough,” Trump said to Bukele and nearby reporters.
Bukele’s visit to the White House came a little over a week after a CBS News 60 Minutes report found that of the 238 Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador last month, 75% of them have “no apparent criminal convictions or even criminal charges.”
The Trump administration justified deporting the Venezuelan migrants by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
Abrego Garcia was not deported under the Alien Enemies Act.