Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, 29, is a first-year sheet metal apprentice in SMART (Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers); I’m a retired SMART member. Kilmar has lived in Maryland with his wife Jennifer and their three young children. He was abducted by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) union on March 12, and shipped to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador. This is where 200 people are incarcerated who the Trump regime illegally deported from the US, claiming that they were Venezuelan gang members. Kilmar had finished a shift at work, picked up his five-year old son from his mother-in-law’s and was driving home when he was stopped by ICE and handcuffed. Jennifer was called to take their son and Kilmar was taken away. She was never told where he was taken; she only became aware of his whereabouts from photographs in a news release.
SMART writes, “In his pursuit of the life promised by the American dream, Brother Kilmar was literally helping to build this great country. What did he get in return? Arrest and deportation to a nation whose prisons face outcry from human rights organizations. SMART condemns his treatment in the strongest possible terms, and we demand his rightful return.”
Jennifer refers to Kilmar as the love of her life, and has said, “Kilmar is an excellent father; he has always been there for our children and all of their needs. Two of them are on the autistic spectrum and our third has epilepsy.”
CASA is a Maryland immigrant rights group (connected with CASA groups nationwide) which started as Central American Solidarity Association, which Kilmar is a member of. CASA states, “In 2019, a judge issued an order prohibiting the government from deporting Kilmar to El Salvador based on the risk of persecution Kilmar would confront if returned to El Salvador.” He has no criminal record. He has never had any gang connections, but was falsely accused of that in 2019, which led to the judge’s order. He had fled El Salvador in 2011 because he and his family were threatened by a gang with extortion and abduction.
His deportation is illegal in multiple ways: no one should be deported without due process; no one should be shipped to a foreign prison; no one should be kept incomunicado; and Kilmar had a specific court order protecting him from being sent to El Salvador. The Trump regime has admitted that his deportation was “an administrative error” but have not lifted a finger to bring about his return. They claim they are powerless to do so – this from a government which claims the power to nullify collective bargaining for all Federal workers and to cut 83,000 jobs from the Veterans Administration, among so many other illegal and flagrant attacks on working people and democracy.
On Friday, April 4, SMART and CASA co-sponsored a 45-minute rally of about 100 people at CASA’s building in Prince George’s County, Maryland. See clip of full rally here:
Speaking were Jennifer, her lawyer, a CASA spokesperson, SMART General President Michael Coleman, and two County Councilmembers. In addition to all calling for Kilmar’s return to his family, speakers emphasized: solidarity with all families and communities who are facing these deportations and disappearances; that Kilmar’s abduction was not an error but part of deliberate policy; and a call to get ICE out of Maryland. Later in the day, US District Judge Paula Xinis ruled that the Trump government must get Kilmar back home by Monday, April 7.
Although it took about three weeks, my union stepped up. Union members and immigrant rights activists coming together for a joint rally with press coverage: this is the kind of alliance that needs to happen all over. The April 5 Hands Off 2025 protests similarly are a joining of organized workers and many civil society groups. We can beat oligarchy, dictatorship and fascism, but we have to fight smart and united.
Steve Morse is a retired sheet metal worker, member of SMART Local 104, Oakland, CA. He is an organizer active in Veterans for Peace and Labor Rise Climate Jobs Action Group.
Labor Rise Climate Jobs Action Group is a grassroots organization of rank-and-file union members working to amplify labor’s voice in the climate struggle. The fight for climate jobs is a key strategy for building power to bring about a Just Transition for workers, communities, and the world. We are affiliated with Labor Rise for Climate, Jobs, Justice, and Peace, a coalition of union activists that grew out of 2018’s 35,000-person Rise for Climate, Jobs, and Justice march in San Francisco.
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