Kilmar Abrego Garcia is requesting the Trump administration stop publicly calling him an MS-13 gangbanger, serial wife beater, human trafficker or monikers associated with the accusations against him.
Since Abrego Garcia was released from pretrial custody earlier in August, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Justice (DOJ) officials have repeatedly attacked the illegal migrant with “highly prejudicial” and “inflammatory” comments in the media and elsewhere in public, his lawyers claimed in a Thursday court filing. The Salvadoran national — who is fighting human trafficking charges — claims the public attacks could taint a jury pool.
“Further intervention from the Court is necessary to protect Mr. Abrego’s right to a fair trial and the integrity of these proceedings,” Abrego Garcia’s attorneys wrote to Tennessee Judge Waverly Crenshaw. “The government’s ongoing barrage of prejudicial statements severely threaten — and perhaps have already irrevocably impaired — the ability to try this case at all — in any venue.”
“If the government is allowed to continue in this way, it will taint any conceivable jury pool by exposing the entire country to irrelevant, prejudicial, and false claims about Mr. Abrego,” his attorneys continued. “The government’s vitriolic statements also risk impeding the defense’s ability to present its case through witnesses, who may well fear that they could be the next target of the government’s public attacks should they take the stand.”
Abrego Garcia, an illegal migrant from El Salvador, became one of the biggest names in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown when he was deported to his home country in March and briefly stayed at the Central American country’s infamous mega-prison. Following intense public outcry from Democrats, he was returned to the U.S. to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee.
Federal prosecutors allege Abrego Garcia made over 100 trips crisscrossing the country smuggling illegal migrants, drugs and guns during his years living unlawfully in the U.S., according to a grand jury indictment. Those charges originally stem from a 2022 Tennessee highway stop in which local law enforcement noticed he was driving eight passengers across the country, none of whom had any luggage and all gave Abrego Garcia’s address as their own.
Other details about Abrego Garcia’s life in the U.S. have surfaced since he became a focus of media attention.
The illegal migrant was arrested in 2019 by local police in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and accused of being an MS-13 gangbanger by a confidential informant. Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, repeatedly accused him of domestic abuse in 2020 and 2021, including allegations that he punched and scratched her eye, dragged her out of a vehicle and other alleged beatdowns.
Trump administration officials have pointed these allegations out in media appearances and other public statements.
In Thursday’s court filing, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys took umbrage with “extrajudicial comments” by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi, border czar Tom Homan and other top administration officials about his alleged past criminality and spousal beatings. The attorney’s also cited various social media posts, including one White House post on X that featured Abrego Garcia’s likeness with “MS-13” written below.
Despite the court request, the Trump administration does not appear willing to back down from its public activity.
“If Kilmar Abrego Garcia did not want to be mentioned by the Secretary of Homeland Security, then he should have not entered our country illegally and committed heinous crimes,” a DHS official stated to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Once again, the media is falling all over themselves to defend this criminal illegal MS-13 gang member who is an alleged human trafficker, domestic abuser, and child predator,” the official continued. “The media’s sympathetic narrative about this criminal illegal alien has completely fallen apart, yet they continue to peddle his sob story. We hear far too much about gang members and criminals’ false sob stories and not enough about their victims.”
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