Kilmar Abrego García, born in July 1995 in the Los Nogales neighborhood of San Salvador, El Salvador, is a Salvadoran immigrant who became the subject of significant legal and humanitarian controversy in the United States. Facing violent extortion and threats from the Barrio 18 gang in El Salvador, which targeted his family’s pupusa business and threatened to recruit or kill family members, Kilmar was sent to the U.S. at age 16 seeking safety. He entered the country illegally around 2011 or 2012, eventually settling in Maryland with his U.S. citizen brother[1][2]. In Maryland, Kilmar married U.S. citizen Jennifer Vasquez Sura, with whom he had one child who has autism and a hearing impairment; the couple also cared for her two children with special needs. Kilmar lived as a devoted husband and father, working as a sheet metal apprentice, with no criminal charges or convictions related to gang activity in the U.S. or El Salvador at the time of his deportation[1][2]. Despite this, the Trump administration deported Kilmar to El Salvador in 2019, alleging MS-13 gang affiliation—claims never proven in court. His deportation was widely criticized as wrongful, leading to his detention in harsh prison conditions in El Salvador, including alleged isolation and mistreatment. Following legal challenges and court orders, Kilmar was returned to the U.S. and faced federal smuggling charges, but was released to his family pending trial[1][2][3]. In 2020, the U.S. government controversially attempted to deport him to Uganda, a country with which Kilmar had no ties, after he refused a plea deal involving deportation to Costa Rica. This move was condemned by civil rights groups such as the ACLU as punitive and unjust[3]. Kilmar Abrego García remains a notable figure due to his case highlighting issues of immigration law, wrongful deportation, and the treatment of immigrant families in the U.S. legal system.