VOTERS AND CONGRESS MEMBERS AGREE: KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA MUST COME HOME!

LOS ANGELES, April 21 –  The National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) today thanked a delegation of Congress members who traveled to El Salvador to demand that Kilmar Abrego Garcia be freed from prison and returned home to his family in Maryland.

NDLON also called attention to a poll released last week that confirms strong public support for Kilmar’s freedom.
The following is a statement from Chris Newman, NDLON’s Legal Director:
“Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a husband, father, union member and former day laborer who was sent illegally to a Salvadoran prison.

“Today four Democratic Representatives – Maxwell Frost of Florida, Robert Garcia of California, Yassamin Ansari of Arizona and Maxine Dexter of Oregon – are standing up for Kilmar, on Salvadoran soil. We are grateful for their willingness to make the journey to defend not just one unjustly imprisoned man, but also our cherished Constitutional values of due process and presumed innocence.

“As Representative Frost said: ‘The rule of law should be followed by everyone, including the President of the United States.’
“Our struggle is not over. Kilmar is not yet free and we urge other political leaders to follow the lead of these courageous Congress members and keep up the pressure in defense of Kilmar. We will continue to defend him and all other immigrants who are struggling for justice.”

There is evidence that the public is on Kilmar’s side. A new poll released last week found that a majority of American voters support returning him to the United States.

“The poll found that 53% of voters say Kilmar should be returned to the United States, while 32% say he should remain in El Salvador and 15% are unsure. Voters also stood firmly behind the Constitution: 67% said the Trump Administration should not be allowed to deport U.S. residents without due process, while 24% said they should be allowed to do this, and 9% had no opinion.”

Meanwhile, NDLON again calls on all members of the press to help separate the truth from the relentless false accusations being told about Kilmar. We urge journalists to dig into these overlooked aspects of the story:

• The lack of clear evidence deliberately used to stigmatize and delegitimize Kilmar’s courageous quest for due process.
• How a sanctuary policy would have prevented local cops from targeting Kilmar at a Home Depot – a waste of police resources that kicked off this whole saga.
• How the Homeland Security Department violated the privacy of Kilmar’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez, by releasing, out of context and unredacted, a confidential document from a domestic-violence claim that was abandoned and later dismissed.