NDLON LAWYER CHRIS NEWMAN RETURNS FROM EL SALVADOR AS EFFORTS TO FREE KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA INTENSIFY

LOS ANGELES, May 29 – Over the Memorial Day weekend, a new delegation traveled to El Salvador to make contact with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland union worker illegally abducted and wrongfully imprisoned by the governments of the United States and El Salvador.

They were U.S. Representative Glenn Ivey of Maryland; Chris Newman, legal director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) and a lawyer for Abrego Garcia’s family, and Jaime Contreras of the labor union SEIU traveled to El Salvador to try to see him.

Salvadoran officials blocked all their attempts.

Mr. Ivey said on X (formerly Twitter): “Today, I was denied access to seeing my constituent, Mr. Kilmar Abrego Garcia. If there is nothing to hide, cut the crap. Let his lawyer and I check on him.”

Newman said:  “We don’t know where Kilmar Abrego Garcia is. We don’t know if he is safe. We don’t know on what basis he is being imprisoned.  And we have no idea what the Bukele and Trump administrations have in store for him.

“What we do know is this- his constitutional and human rights are currently being violated to such a degree that everyone’s rights in the United States and El Salvador are at risk.   And this is why a growing coalition- including lawmakers, lawyers, and union leaders- continue to fight vigorously to keep a spotlight on his case.  We will not stop until his rights are respected.”

To contact Chris Newman of NDLON to discuss the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case, please reach out via NDLON Communications Director Palmira Figueroa, pfigueroa@ndlon.org, (425) 301-2764

Background: Kilmar is an immigrant from El Salvador, a sheet-metal union apprentice, a husband and father whose wife and children are U.S. citizens. The Trump Administration abducted him in March and sent him by “administrative error” to a maximum-security “terrorist” prison in El Salvador. Trump and El Salvador’s authoritarian President, Nayib Bukele, have falsely accused him of terrorism and other serious crimes and rejected all calls to bring Kilmar back to the United States, even from the U.S. Supreme Court. Kilmar has had no due process, no criminal charges or convictions – and no contact with his family or lawyers since his illegal disappearance.

Here is some recent TV and print coverage of the story:

Broadcast

• Rep. Glenn Ivey speaks with WJZ after return from El Salvador to see Kilmar Abrego Garcia | CBS Baltimore 6AM

• Glenn Ivey denied access to Kilmar Abrego Garcia | FOX 5 DC

• Rep. Ivey: El Salvador denied me a meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia | The Weeknight

• CNN / The Arena with Kasie Hunt

• MSNBC / The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell

Print

• US files motion to dismiss lawsuit over Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s deportation | AP

• US judge blasts Trump lawyers for 11th-hour tactics in MS-13 deportation case | FOX News

• Trump Admin Seeks To Dismiss Abrego Garcia Case Because He’s Not In The US | Newsweek

• Maryland Democrat says he was denied access to Abrego Garcia in El Salvador | USA Today

Other news articles and social media posts on the visit to El Salvador are available here:

• The Bulwark

• X (formerly Twitter)

• Reuters

• elsalvador.com

• La Prensa Gráfica (El Salvador)

• CNN en Español

• Arab News