The Making of a Gang Member

The Trump administration has made Kilmar Abrego Garcia its poster boy for mass deportations, but he’s not a criminal or a gang member

Photo by René Ranisch on Unsplash

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was 16 years old when came to the United States in 2011 after members of the Barrio 18 gang in El Salvador threatened to kiil him and rape his sisters. He ended up living in Maryland with his brother for years without getting into any trouble. However, in 2019, he was arrested for loitering outside a Home Depot while looking for day labor work.

After being detained, a police officer asked him about being a gang member. Abrego Garcia denied involvement in any gang. Hours later, he was transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. During Abrego Gracia’s bond hearing, ICE submitted a “Gang Field Interview Sheet” (GFIS) to the court claiming he was a member of MS-13, a gang based in the U.S. that also operates in El Salvador.

Their claim was based on Abrego Garcia wearing Chicago Bulls athletic wear and a supposed confidential informant, a Prince Georges County police officer. The claim alleged Abrego Garcia was the leader of a gang in Long Island, a city he’s never lived in. When his lawyers summoned the Prince Georges County police to provide evidence of their claim, they were advised that a police report was never filed and that the officer who made the claim was suspended. No reason was given for his suspension. Abrego Garcia was never charged.

While an immigration judge would ultimately rule that Abrego Garcia was not eligible for asylum after several court hearings and appeals, they did rule in 2019 that Abrego Garcia could not be deported, particularly to El Salvador, where his life was still in danger. That is, he was under the court’s protection from deportation under the law. But in March, he was detained, summarily deported, and is now incarcerated in El Salvador’s notorious mega prison, CECOT.

That’s Kilmar’s story. He is among hundreds of others who had their rights ignored to appease the Trump administration and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s political theater. At least 75% of the migrants sent to CECOT are like Abrego Garcia – no criminal record, law-abiding, pay taxes, and contribute to their communities. Many have U.S.-citizen families, spouses, and children.

These families aren’t just being separated in the most inhumane way possible, they’re also being victimized a second time in the media by the administration.

Meanwhile, Bukele, sitting in the people’s White House, lied to the American people when he said he didn’t have the power to return Abrego Garcia. It should be noted that he has already returned as many as 8 Venezuelan migrant women to the U.S., and after three years of marital law, if anyone has the power to order Abrego Garcia released, it's Bukele.

But Bukele is echoing the same strategy he’s used in El Salvador over the last three years, and the Trump administration is adopting it. In his speeches, Bukele pounds listeners with various unfounded claims, expecting people to take his word for it. In him suggesting that Abrego Garcia is a gang member despite the mountains of evidence suggesting otherwise, he highlighted precisely how he’s operating at home where he’s incarcerated 1% of El Salvador’s population.

Questions about how many innocent people are in his prisons are plentiful. While Bukele claims El Salvador is now the safest country in Latin America, Salvadorans tell a different story. They describe how police, military personnel, and Mexican cartels have taken over the activities once carried out by gangs such as MS-13 and Barrio 18. Some tidbits he leaves out. Bukele might be charismatic and a great speaker, but most authoritarian dictators are.

As the truth about Abrego Garcia comes out, the Trump administration has begun a propaganda campaign against him and the news media, saying mainstream media is defending an MS-13 gang member. After Bukele’s White House visit, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem stopped cosplaying for a minute to “set the record straight” about Abrego Garcia and visited Fox News, as did DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

“This was just one of those examples of an individual that is a MS-13 gang member, multiple charges and encounters with the individuals here, trafficking in his background, was found with other MS-13 gang members—very dangerous person, and what the liberal left and fake news are doing to turn him into a media darling is sickening,” Noem said.

McLaughlin took it a step further and somewhat echoed talk of detaining migrants in El Salvador indefinitely while continuing to lie about Abrego Garcia.

“I think this illegal alien is exactly where he belongs—home in El Salvador,” McLuaghlin said. “He was in our country illegally; he is from El Salvador, was born in El Salvador, and, oh, the media forgot to mention: He is an MS-13 gang member. The media would love for you to believe that this is a media darling, that he is just a Maryland father. Osama Bin Laden was also a father, and yet, he was not a good guy, and they actually are both terrorists. He should be in this El Salvador prison, a prison for terrorists, and I hope he will remain there,” she continued.

They’re building on White House goon Stephen Miller’s comments during Bukele’s televised visit. The goal is to drive and maintain their narrative. They’ll point to his arrest for loitering or that he was a noncitizen and claim he was “illegal” and a “criminal” since he may have crossed the border to claim asylum. They will also argue that crossing the border is a crime when it's a civil penalty while not explaining the difference to a base who doesn't know.

“[Abrego Garcia] is a member of MS-13, which—as I’m sure you understand—rapes little girls, murders women, murders children, is engaged in barbaric activities in the world,” MIller said. And I can promise you if he was your neighbor, you would move right away.”

Notice the language Miller uses. He follows talking about Abrego Garcia with “MS-13” and then follows that with “rapes little girls” and “murders women.” Those are the dog whistles that invoke images of little white girls being victimized by Latino men. They say it enough, and our media starts to buy into “well, this is different” narratives, and voters do too. Before you know it, more people than ever will support mass deportations and the inherent inhumanity it brings.

The way the administration is conducting itself will lead Trump supporters to gleefully regurgitate everything it says to justify the inhumanity against Brown people and to bolster their racism and xenophobia. They’ll ignore the facts highlighting that Abrego Garcia and hundreds of others are not criminals. They’ll forget that they ever said they support migrants coming the so-called “right way” as the Trump administration disappears noncitizens who did it the “legal way.”

As the administration is exposing to the whole world how the U.S. designates people as gang members and terrorists using dubious qualifiers that don’t add up to much, if you ever wonder how innocent people end up in prison, this is precisely how it happens. While this type of behavior is an obvious detriment to society, sadly, we live in a world where the private prison industry’s margins are more important, and refugee camps are considered an untapped market.

At the end of the day, the Trump administration is kidnapping people and disappearing them to forced labor prisons in a foreign country. There’s a word for that: slavery. There is no other way to look at it.

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Arturo is an independent journalist whose work can be found at Unicorn Riot, The Antagonist Magazine, Latino Rebels, and more. Arturo is also on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and Threads. To support his work, become a paid subscriber or donate via Venmo, PayPal, or Cash App.