Kilmar Abrego Garcia, suspected MS-13 member in deportation brouhaha, was accused of beating wife

The illegal immigrant and alleged MS-13 member whose deportation to El Salvador has set off a political firestorm was previously accused of beating his wife, according to court documents shared by federal officials.

The Department of Homeland Security posted photos of a 2021 restraining order against Kilmar Abrego Garcia in which his wife accuses him of punching and scratching her. The Prince George’s County court filing also said Mr. Abrego Garcia, 29, ripped off her shirt and left bruises on her.

“This MS-13 gang member is not a sympathetic figure,” the DHS said Wednesday on X.

The nearly four-year-old restraining order sought by Jennifer Vasquez Sura, Mr. Abrego Garcia’s wife, strikes a different tone than the glowing note she wrote about her husband on a GoFundMe page seeking to cover legal and living expenses in his absence.

“Kilmar is an excellent father. He has always been there for our three children and all of their needs,” she said on the fundraising page, mentioning that two of the children are on the autism spectrum and the other suffers from epilepsy.

“Kilmar has been the main provider of our household and the love of my life for over seven years,” Ms. Vasquez Sura continued. “Since our family has been separated, I have been devastated and confused. I lost my life partner, my children lost their father, and all of our family, neighbors, co-workers, and friends have been devastated due to this unjust family separation.”

That contrasted with a handwritten complaint posted to social media by a Fox News reporter, signed by Ms. Vasquez, detailing more violence.

She said her husband hit her with his work boot, and hit her in the eye leaving it purple.

“At this point I am afraid to be close to him,” she wrote in the document, dated May 5, 2021.

“I have multiple photos/videos of how violate[sic] he can be and all the bruises he has left me,” she wrote.

The documents appear to counter Democratic efforts to paint Mr. Abrego Garcia as a victim of the Trump administration and their high-profile actions on his behalf.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Democrat, flew down Wednesday to speak with Salvadoran leaders about freeing the “illegally abducted” Mr. Abrego Garcia from the country’s terrorist mega-prison.

While Mr. Van Hollen was angling for a meeting with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, he did speak with the nation’s vice president and urged him to pass the message along.

Mr. Bukele said during a visit to the White House earlier this week that it would be “preposterous” to return Mr. Abrego Garcia to the U.S.

“How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” the Salvadoran president said. “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”

The Maryland Democrat also accused the Trump administration of lying about the evidence they have linking Mr. Abrego Garcia to the notorious MS-13 gang. In 2019, an immigration judge found Mr. Abrego Garcia to be a member of the gang based on confidential information from Prince George’s County’s police.

The illegal immigrant had a deportation order against him, but a judge granted him a withholding of removal because he faced grave danger in his native El Salvador.

Mr. Abrego Garcia was sent to the Central American country’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, on March 15 among three planeloads of alleged gang members. Most of the roughly 250 suspected gang affiliates sent over last month had ties to Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua.