A Maryland mother of three is fighting for answers after her husband vanished without warning. He was last seen in the custody of U.S. immigration agents.
Jennifer Vasquez, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, publicly addressed her husband’s disappearance during a press briefing before a court hearing.
Her statement comes more than a month after Garcia was allegedly detained and deported by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), despite existing protections.
Jennifer Vasquez gives a statement outside a Maryland courthouse prior to a hearing on her husband, Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case, dated April 16, 2025 | Source: YouTube/ABCNews
According to the Defendants’ Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Plaintiffs’ Emergency Motion for Temporary Restraining Order, Garcia was stopped by ICE officers on March 12, 2025.
The officers informed him that his immigration status had changed. After being detained, he was questioned about gang affiliations and transferred to a detention center in Texas.
Legal filings state that Garcia was told he would be removed to El Salvador and held at the CECOT prison. Despite being under protection from removal to El Salvador, he was deported on March 15 due to what was described as an “administrative error.”
One day later, on March 16, a news article published a photo of individuals arriving at CECOT. In the image, Vasquez identified one of the detainees as her husband. She recognized him based on visible tattoos and scars on his head.
Standing before reporters, the heartbroken woman introduced herself by saying, “My name is Jennifer. I am Kilmar’s wife. He is a father, a son, a brother, and a proud member of CASA and Smart Union member who has dedicated himself to make our family’s American dream [a] reality.”
She continued, “That dream was shattered on March 12 when he was abducted and disappeared by the United States government in front of our 5-year-old child [sic].”
Jennifer Vasquez shares her thoughts outside a Maryland courthouse prior to a hearing on her husband, Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case, dated April 16, 2025 | Source: YouTube/ABCNews
She added, “Today is 34 days of after his disappearance and I stand before you filled with spirit that refuses to bring down [sic].”
Vasquez ended her emotional statement with a plea, “I will not stop fighting until I see my husband alive. Kilmar, if you can hear me, stay strong. God hasn’t forgotten about you. Our children are asking when would you come home. And I pray for the day I tell them the time and date that you’ll return… our children miss their dad so much.”
The detention center where Garcia was taken — CECOT, or the Center for Terrorism Confinement — is widely recognized as one of the harshest prisons in the world.
The El Salvador-based facility is known for housing the country’s most dangerous criminals, including mass murderers and gang affiliates.
With a capacity of 40,000 inmates, it has become a symbol of El Salvador’s aggressive crime crackdown and has been described as home to the “worst of the worst.” Conditions inside have drawn international criticism for their severity and lack of basic human rights protections.
A court had previously granted Garcia withholding of removal — a legal status that allows the U.S. government to deport someone but not to a country where they might face harm or persecution. In his case, that country was El Salvador.
Federal Judge Paula Xinis of the U.S. District Court in Maryland ruled on April 4 that the deportation was unlawful. She ordered the government to return Garcia to the United States by 11:59 p.m. on April 7.
In her decision, Judge Xinis stated, “This was an illegal act,” and added, “Congress said you can’t do it, and you did it anyway.”
During court proceedings, Judge Xinis emphasized that Garcia had been “apprehended last month without legal basis” and deported “without justification of legal basis.”
A Department of Justice attorney, Erez Reuveni, acknowledged the government’s mistake in court, saying, “Our only arguments are jurisdictional … he should not have been sent to El Salvador.”
However, the legal battle continued. On April 7, just hours before the midnight deadline, the U.S. Supreme Court intervened. Chief Justice John Roberts issued a temporary court order, delaying the lower court’s deadline.
This meant that the Maryland father of three would remain detained in the CECOT prison while the court reviewed the case. Roberts did not assign a new deadline but instructed Garcia’s legal team to respond quickly, which they did prior to the order becoming public.
His attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, responded to the development by saying, “This is just a temporary administrative stay. We have every confidence that the Supreme Court will resolve this matter as quickly as possible.”
Garcia’s wife, Vasquez, also responded to the Trump administration’s claims that her husband had gang ties, specifically to MS-13.
Speaking to ABC News, she firmly denied the allegations, “He’s never been convicted for anything,” she said. “Everything they are saying is wrong.”
She described her husband as “a loving father,” and added, “What I know is that he’s an amazing husband, an amazing father. That’s who he truly is.”
She recounted how she learned about his deportation through photos published by Salvadoran media. “It was heartbreaking,” she said. “Lots of tears, confused.”
Her concern for his well-being remains unresolved. “My biggest question is, when is he coming home? Is he OK? And I don’t think anyone can answer that right now.”
Vasquez also spoke about the emotional toll on their children, particularly their youngest son. “My youngest son is autistic and he’s nonverbal, but I’ve seen that he misses him a lot. He looks for him, he looks for his work shirts just to smell him.”
Meanwhile, political rhetoric around deportations has intensified. President Donald Trump addressed recent deportation actions and appeared to support the idea of sending more individuals to foreign prisons.
“We are looking into it and we want to do it. I would love to do that,” Trump said. Referring to some deportees as “home-grown criminals,” the president stated that something had gone wrong in their lives, causing them to become violent and pose a danger to others.
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador in the Oval Office of the White House April 14, 2025, in Washington, D.C. | Source: Getty Images
As legal proceedings continue, Garcia remains imprisoned in a facility described by international observers as one of the most dangerous in the Western Hemisphere.
At the center of the storm is a Maryland family, still waiting for answers and for the safe return of a husband and father.
