Trump skewed the facts about Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, MS-13 gang and deportation

After President Donald Trump’s administration admitted in court it had deported Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to El Salvador in "error," Trump described the 29-year-old deportee as a dangerous man.

Democrats and the media portray Abrego Garcia as "innocent," which is a "total, blatant, and dangerous LIE," Trump wrote in an April 20 Truth Social post.

"Garcia has been found by two separate Courts to be a member of the violent, killer gang MS-13, was in our Country illegally, and is under a Deportation Order," Trump said. 

Abrego Garcia crossed the U.S. border illegally around 2011 or 2012, according to court documents. His lawyers said he traveled to Maryland where his brother, a U.S. citizen, lives. 

But Trump’s statement about Abrego Garcia’s court history and deportation order misleadingly glosses over critical details that tell a different story.  A judge initially ruled in 2019 that government evidence about Abrego Garcia’s gang membership was "trustworthy," and was upheld on appeal; later, two federal judges ruled that the government’s information was unsupported.

Trump also omitted the central point that Abrego Garcia’s family, legal team and advocates say is at issue: He was deported without due process. Typically, people appear before an immigration judge before they are ordered deported. 

Abrego Garcia has maintained in court that he is not a gang member. His attorney Simon Y. Sandoval-Moshenberg told PolitiFact his client has "never been convicted of any crime, gang-related or otherwise," and we also found no court evidence he had been convicted.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyers in a March court filing called Abrego Garcia’s March deportation to El Salvador an "oversight" and "an administrative error." A court ordered in 2019 that Abrego Garcia should not be deported to that country.

On April 10, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in an unsigned order, that the U.S. government had to "facilitate" his release from custody in El Salvador. 

Allegations about MS-13 gang membership based on clothing, anonymous source

Abrego Garcia was looking for day labor outside a Home Depot in Maryland in 2019 when Prince George’s County police took him and three others into custody. Officers asked Abrego Garcia if he was a gang member, and he said no, according to a March 2025 court filing by Sandoval-Moshenberg.

ICE took Abrego Garcia into its custody. A police informant told law enforcement that Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 gang member, according to a police report known as a "gang field interview sheet."

The sheet said officers observed Abrego Garcia wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie with a graphic showing rolls of money covering the eyes, ears and mouths of the presidents pictured on separate bills.

"Officers know such clothing to be indicative of the Hispanic gang culture," an officer wrote in the report, adding that the symbols on the clothing represent the phrase "ver, oir y callar" or "see no evil, hear no evil and say no evil."

Wearing the Chicago Bulls hat shows "they are a member in good standing with the MS-13," an officer wrote. The report also cited what it called a "reliable" and confidential source who said Abrego Garcia was in the gang’s "Westerns clique." 

Steven Dudley, a journalist who studied MS-13, told PolitiFact that sometimes the gang used the Bulls logo as a stand-in for the two fingers out as devil's horns, a gang symbol. "Still, the Bulls remain one of the world's most popular sports franchises, so it is absurd to equate the use of that apparel as being a member of any gang. In all cases, if it arouses suspicion, then you corroborate it via other means. It is never definitive in and of itself."

When we asked the White House and federal immigration officials for evidence of Abrego Garcia’s MS-13 membership, Homeland Security media relations responded, citing the clothing descriptions and two judges’ 2019 rulings related to the case.

Two judges didn’t dismiss police account of gang affiliation, but two higher courts said it lacked evidence

While Abrego Garcia was in ICE custody, immigration Judge Elizabeth Kessler denied his initial 2019 bond request, describing officers’ determination that he was a member of MS-13 as "trustworthy" and "supported by other evidence in the record." Kessler also cast doubt on law enforcement’s reliance on "clothing as an indication of gang affiliation," while citing the informant’s verification of his gang membership.

When Abrego Garcia appealed Kessler’s ruling, the appeals board upheld the decision, saying the judge "appropriately considered allegations of gang affiliation." 

The appeals judge wrote that Abrego Garcia said he had "presented sufficient evidence to rebut the allegation that he is affiliated with MS-13, including character references and criminal records showing that he has only been charged with traffic offenses."

Immigration bond hearings require less evidence than criminal convictions. And the proceedings do not constitute a conviction, because they are not trials.

David Leopold, an immigration attorney and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said that in bond hearings "adverse statements, particularly from law enforcement, carry tremendous weight and there’s typically no opportunity to cross examine the officer who made the statement. It’s no surprise that the judge initially held him."

Abrego Garcia’s attorney, Sandoval-Moshenberg, challenged the government’s evidence. Sandoval-Moshenberg argued in a court filing that the Justice Department and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office say the "westerns clique" that the confidential informant said Abrego Garcia belonged to operates in Brentwood, a hamlet of Long Island, New York; Abrego Garcia has never lived in New York.

Sandoval-Moshenberg also questioned the credibility of the officer who filled out the gang field interview sheet. Sandoval-Moshenberg said that when he contacted police to speak to the examining officer, he learned the detective had been suspended.

Although the officer’s name is blacked out in court documents, the New Republic reported that the officer was Ivan Mendez, citing information from one of Abrego Garcia’s lawyers. Mendez was suspended days after Abrego Garcia’s 2019 arrest over allegations that he gave confidential information to a sex worker. Mendez pleaded guilty in 2022 to misconduct in office and received probation, the New Republic reported. A spokesperson for the Office of the State’s Attorney for Prince George’s County sent PolitiFact a copy of the indictment and said the plea agreement required Mendez to leave the police department.

The immigration judges’ decision to deny bond is not equivalent to ruling that Abrego Garcia was a gang member, David Bier, associate director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, previously told PolitiFact. 

In immigration bond hearings, detainees have the burden of proof to show they are neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community. Abrego Garcia "failed to meet his burden to show that he was not a danger," Bier said. That’s not the same as the government proving affirmatively that he was an MS-13 member. 

"The immigration judge is only taking at face value any evidence that the government provides," Bier said. "It is not assessing its underlying validity at that stage."

Two judges later said the government didn’t prove Abrego Garcia’s gang membership. U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis wrote April 6 the government relied on a "singular unsubstantiated allegation." Xinis in early April ordered the U.S. government to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return from El Salvador.

A Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals judge, Stephanie Thacker, wrote April 7 the government’s assertion that Abrego Garcia was a member of a gang was "unsupported." 

Thacker wrote that "the Government’s "evidence" of any connection between Abrego Garcia and MS-13 was thin, to say the least."

Trump omits that a court protected Abrego Garcia from removal to El Salvador

Trump’s Truth Social post said Abrego Garcia "is under a Deportation Order," but that doesn’t tell the whole story.

 In October 2019, during Trump’s first presidency, David M. Jones, a federal immigration judge, granted Abrego Garcia a "withholding of removal," which is a legal protection from being deported to El Salvador. Jones granted it because when Abrego Garcia was a minor living in El Salvador, a gang had tried to recruit him and extort money from his mother, leading to death threats. However, Jones denied Abrego Garcia’s 2019 asylum request because of the amount of time that lapsed since his entry into the U.S. Immigrants can apply for asylum within one year of entry.

People with the protection granted to Abrego Garcia are allowed to legally work in the U.S. but can still be deported. Jones’ order meant Abrego Garcia was prohibited from being returned to El Salvador, but it would not have prohibited the U.S. from deporting him to a different country.

The fact that the first Trump administration didn’t appeal the withholding of removal, Bier said, showed that "at that time, it did not consider him a threat and no new evidence has been presented since then."

PolitiFact Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson and Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this article.

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