section_path: Arrest and deportation in 2025
section_name: Arrest and deportation in 2025
paragraph_text: Arrest and deportation in 2025
  
  On March 12, 2025, after working at his job as a union apprentice, Abrego Garcia picked his son up from his grandmother's house. After leaving the house, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agent stopped Abrego Garcia's car. The agent told Abrego Garcia that his immigration "status had changed", waited until his wife arrived to take custody of their son, and then arrested Abrego Garcia. Abrego Garcia's wife said that ICE called her after detaining her husband and told her "she had ten minutes to pick up her son before he was turned over to child protective services." Detained in Baltimore, Abrego Garcia told his wife that he was repeatedly questioned about whether he was connected to MS-13, and that agents had referenced a restaurant that his family often went to as well as a photo of him playing basketball. In the following days, ICE transferred Abrego Garcia to a detention facility in Louisiana and then to one in Texas.
  
  Abrego Garcia called Vasquez Sura on March 15 from Texas, telling his wife that he was being deported to CECOT.
  
  On March 15, the Trump administration sent "three planeloads" of Salvadoran and Venezuelan deportees, including Abrego Garcia, to the CECOT in El Salvador, alleging that they were members of criminal organizations. A Bloomberg investigation found that approximately 90% of them had no US criminal record other than traffic or immigration violations.
  
  Robert Cerna, an ICE official stated in a sworn filing that "Abrego Garcia's protected status had not appeared on the flight manifest for the deportations" and that as a result he was listed as an "alternate" and took the place of other detainees that were removed. Under his sworn testimony, "Cerna referred to Abrego Garcia's 'purported membership in MS-13', but he did not describe him as a confirmed gang member, gang leader, or terrorist." He had not been charged with a crime in the US.
  
  After being transported to the Terrorism Confinement Center, Abrego Garcia's family had no contact with him.
  
  On March 12, 2025, after working at his job as a union apprentice, Abrego Garcia picked his son up from his grandmother's house. After leaving the house, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agent stopped Abrego Garcia's car. The agent told Abrego Garcia that his immigration "status had changed", waited until his wife arrived to take custody of their son, and then arrested Abrego Garcia. Abrego Garcia's wife said that ICE called her after detaining her husband and told her "she had ten minutes to pick up her son before he was turned over to child protective services." Detained in Baltimore, Abrego Garcia told his wife that he was repeatedly questioned about whether he was connected to MS-13, and that agents had referenced a restaurant that his family often went to as well as a photo of him playing basketball. In the following days, ICE transferred Abrego Garcia to a detention facility in Louisiana and then to one in Texas.
  
  Abrego Garcia called Vasquez Sura on March 15 from Texas, telling his wife that he was being deported to CECOT.
  
  On March 15, the Trump administration sent "three planeloads" of Salvadoran and Venezuelan deportees, including Abrego Garcia, to the CECOT in El Salvador, alleging that they were members of criminal organizations. A Bloomberg investigation found that approximately 90% of them had no US criminal record other than traffic or immigration violations.
  
  Robert Cerna, an ICE official stated in a sworn filing that "Abrego Garcia's protected status had not appeared on the flight manifest for the deportations" and that as a result he was listed as an "alternate" and took the place of other detainees that were removed. Under his sworn testimony, "Cerna referred to Abrego Garcia's 'purported membership in MS-13', but he did not describe him as a confirmed gang member, gang leader, or terrorist." He had not been charged with a crime in the US.
  
  After being transported to the Terrorism Confinement Center, Abrego Garcia's family had no contact with him.