Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, spoke exclusively on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Friday morning in her first interview since Sen. Chris Van Hollen met with her husband in El Salvador Thursday.
Van Hollen late Thursday released a photo of himself with Abrego Garcia, which was the first time Vasquez Sura had seen him since spotting him in a photo among several other migrants being brought into El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison last month.
“It was very overwhelming,” Vasquez Sura said of seeing the image Thursday night.
“The most important thing for me, my children, his mom, his brother, his sibling, was to see him alive, and we saw him alive,” she told GMA’s Michael Strahan.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who has been living with his wife and children in Maryland, was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13.
The Trump administration, while acknowledging that Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador in error, has said that his alleged MS-13 affiliation makes him ineligible to return to the United States.
After a federal judge ruled earlier this month that the Trump administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that ruling, the polarizing case has become a test of the power of the executive branch versus the courts.
Jennifer Vasquez Sura speaks with ABC News.
ABC News
Vasquez Sura, speaking to GMA, denied that her husband is a member of MS-13 or any other gang.
“I won’t stop fighting until he returns home, until I know that he’s safe,” Vasquez Sura told Strahan.
“It’s been 37 days since March 12, since my husband was abducted,” said Vasquez Sura. “It’s been an emotional, emotional rollercoaster, honestly.”
“We’ve been together over seven years. It’s been amazing. He is very a loving husband, and amazing father. We were just young parents trying to live the American dream,” said Vasquez Sura, who is a U.S. citizen, along with the couple’s children.
“Our faith has grown, and I keep him in my prayers to bring him back home,” she said.
Strahan questioned Vasquez Sura about her filing for an order of protection from her husband in 2021, in which she cited being slapped, hit with an object, and being detained against her will. The case was closed about a month later when she failed to appear for a court hearing.
“You did take out a temporary order of protection against your husband in 2021. Were you in fear of your husband?” Strahan asked.
“My husband is alive,” Vasquez Sura responded. “That’s all I can say.”
Earlier this week, in a statement released to ABC News through her attorney, Vasquez Sura 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. We were able to work through this situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling. Kilmar has always been a loving partner and father, and I will continue to stand by him and demand justice for him.”
Van Hollen, a Democratic senator from Vasquez Sura’s home state of Maryland, flew to El Salvador on Wednesday to try to meet with Abrego Garcia.
“I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance,” Van Hollen said in the social media post in which he shared the photo of him with Abrego Garcia. “I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.”
Vasquez Sura was told that the meeting between Van Hollen and Abrego Garcia was set up by El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, a source close to the family told ABC News.
The source said Abrego Garcia and Vasquez Sura were not able to speak.
