Who is Abrego Garcia, and should he have been deported? 

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia is a Salvadorian immigrant who entered the US illegally as a teenager in 2011. In 2019, he married a US citizen named Jeneffir Sura. He’s the father of a 5-year-old child with severe autism. He raises two other children, also diagnosed with special needs, from his wife’s previous relationship.

Garcia has no criminal record, but in March, he was loaded onto a plane with around 300 (allegedly) violent criminals, part of the MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs. His destination? The notorious CECOT, a maximum security prison in El Salvador known for its brutal conditions.

Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia? And why has his case caused such waves in the media? 

Why was Garcia deported?

Six years ago, Garcia and three of his companions were arrested in a Home Depot parking lot. During their questioning, the police initially believed Garcia was affiliated with MS-13. Garcia was handed over to ICE to be deported. 

Although the government argued in ICE court at that time that he was a gang member, the immigration court gave him protected status, called “withholding of removal.” This means the judge believed that, if he were deported to El Salvador, he would “more likely than not” face threats to his life from gang violence. 

As far as I can tell, as a non-expert, “withholding of removal” means that Garcia could be legally deported to any country other than El Salvador, but the standard procedure is to reopen the case and give new evidence arguing for deportation. Regardless, deporting Garcia to El Salvador goes against the earlier ICE court ruling. He was deported with other alleged gang members in a mass deportation. Garcia denies membership in MS-13 and still has no criminal record. 

The legal knots of Garcia’s case

In response to his deportation, Garcia’s family sued the government. In court, the administration and ICE admitted to an “administrative error” in deporting Garcia. When the Maryland judge ordered that Garcia be brought back to the US, the administration refused. 

The case quickly reached the Supreme Court, which unanimously agreed with the lower court but changed the wording of what the administration must do from “effectuate” to only “facilitate” Garcia’s return. 

This word-splicing is open to interpretation. The Trump administration claims this wording shift as a victory. They say they will allow Garcia to return, but don’t need to call upon El Salvador to send him back. Indeed, President Trump and El Salvador’s president have signalled they don’t plan to move him back to the US.  

To complicate matters further, Stephen Miller, the Department of Homeland Security adviser, walked back the admission of error. He blamed a Justice Department lawyer for admitting the wrongdoing, who was fired this weekend. However, others in the administration attested to the deportation being a “mistake” and an “error.” 

The editorial board of the conservative magazine The National Review argues that there is “scant evidence” of Garcia being in the gang and calls on the administration to bring him back. The WSJ editorial board does, too. This case is evolving daily. 

As it stands, the White House does not seem to plan to bring Garcia back.

Should the administration bring Garcia back? 

Many, including many conservative commentators, believe that the administration should bring Garcia back in order to uphold law and order. Otherwise, they risk setting the precedent that the government can go against a judge’s ruling as long as they scurry the defendant off to another country quickly enough to say “Oops. Oh well, it’s not our problem anymore.”

However, there’s a significant chance that Garcia could still be deported in the future, as the government could choose to send him to a different country, even with his protected status. According to his family, he originally moved to America illegally because of gang threats on his life. 

Now, with a family of his own in the US, trying to make ends meet, with three special needs children, he is grouped in with hostile gang members, and shipped to an infamously torturous prison. Nightmarish is the only appropriate word to describe his and his family’s experience.

Easter and missing the person for the policy 

This Easter week, we celebrate Jesus’s death and glorious resurrection. Jesus foresaw and went to the cross willingly. He was innocent, and the charges brought against him were made up. Jesus bore unthinkable shame and torture on the cross, and yet, he still made space for a compassionate moment with the thief dying next to him (Luke 23:39–41). 

Jesus, in the act of saving the world through his own brutal death, in the middle of rescuing countless multitudes from sin and death, did not deign to ignore the individual next to him. Jesus’ compassion and love for the unnamed, humble criminal led to that criminal’s salvation.

You may or may not agree with the administration’s new sweeping deportation agenda. Regardless, we should never miss the person for the policy, politics, or programs. Far too often, in politicizing issues, we ignore the plight of the lowly, orphans, widows, and immigrants, marring our witness as Christians.

The most pressing question for us today is not if Abrego Garcia deserves to be in America. Rather, it’s if the government of this nation and the people it represents will commit to finding a way to enforce its laws without losing sight of the inherent humanity and worth of the people who break them. 

As Christians, that should be an easy question to answer. And answering correctly is all the more important because when we fail to do so, it feeds into the negative stereotypes—judgmental, care more about condemning sin than helping sinners, etc.—that pervade much of our culture.  

God’s word does not allow us to reduce souls to talking points, and that is just as true for Abrego Garcia as it is for you and me.