The wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran migrant whose wrongful deportation to El Salvador is at the center of a legal battle with the Trump administration, had a temporary order of protection against him in 2021 in which she cited being slapped, hit with an object, and being detained against her will, according to court documents obtained by ABC News.
In a lengthy statement within a petition for protection “from domestic violence,” Jennifer Vasquez Sura mentioned an incident on May 4, 2021, in which she alleges that Abrego Garcia “punched and scratched her eye,” causing her to bleed.
That same day, Vasquez Sura said that when she told Abrego Garcia that she needed to go to a store, he “got angry, started yelling again to the point that he ripped [her] shorts and shirt off.”
“And I ran to the bathroom, he [ran] behind me and grabbed me by my arm,” Vasquez Sura said. “I have marks on my left arm as well.”
“At this point I am afraid to be close to him,” Vasquez Sura added. “I have multiple photos/videos of how [violent] he can be.”
Vasquez Sura obtained a temporary protective order against Abrego Garcia in May of 2021, according to state court records in Maryland. The order required that Abrego Garcia have no contact with Vasquez Sura, and that he stay away from their shared residence, the records show.
In a statement released to ABC News Wednesday through her attorney, Vasquez Sura — who has been vocal in her support of Abrego Garcia during his incarceration in El Salvador — said, “After surviving domestic violence in a previous relationship, I acted out of caution after a disagreement with Kilmar by seeking a protective order in case things escalated.”
Jennifer Vasquez Sura, wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, speaks during a press conference on the day of a hearing in the case related to Kilmar Abrego Garcia outside U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, April 15, 2025.
Leah Millis/Reuters
“We were able to work through this situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling,” Vasquez Sura said. “Kilmar has always been a loving partner and father, and I will continue to stand by him and demand justice for him.”
Abrego Garcia, who the Trump administration alleges is a member of the criminal gang MS-13, is entering his second month in an El Salvador mega-prison after he was deported there on March 15 despite being issued a 2019 court order barring his deportation to his home country due to the fear of persecution.
He had been living in Maryland with Vasquez Sura , their 5-year-old child, and two step-children. Vasquez Sura has denied that he is affiliated with MS-13.
In the 2021 documents obtained by ABC News, Vasquez Sura noted two past incidents, alleging that in 2020, Abrego Garcia hit her with his work boot and that in August 2020, he hit her in the eye.
The protective order was dismissed a month after it was issued, on June 17, 2021, after Vasquez Sura failed to appear in court, according to a signed order of dismissal by a judge.
ABC News also obtained documents submitted to a Maryland court in August 2018 by a man who claimed to be the father of two of Vasquez Sura’s children. In a five-page motion for an emergency hearing, he said he feared for the children’s lives, in part, “because she is dating a gang member and attempted self-harm,” the records state.
The man did not include the name of the individual he alleged is a gang member. It is not known if he was referring to Abrego Garcia.
The initials of his children’s names, listed in a custody complaint, match the ones that Vasquez Sura listed for her kids in a declaration submitted in Abrego Garcia’s case.
He appears to have left some sections of the complaint unfinished, including what custody terms he was requesting. However, in the filing he said he would allow Vasquez Sura to visit the children on the condition that “we both agree on the time and date.”
According to court documents dated January 18, 2019, the case was dismissed because Vasquez Sura wasn’t served.
Vasquez Sura’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment on documents involving her ex.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant in this handout image obtained by Reuters on April 9, 2025.
Abrego Garcia Family via Reuters
On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered government officials to testify under oath because, she said, they had “done nothing to aid in Abrego Garcia’s release from custody and return to the United States,” despite the Supreme Court directing the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador.
The Department of Homeland Security, in a social media post Wednesday, shared a 2021 court record from Abrego Garcia’s protective order case and said in the post that he “was not the upstanding ‘Maryland Man’ the media has portrayed him as.”
