Former Neighbors of Kilmar Abrego Garcia Deny Gang Presence Used to Justify ‘Withholding of Removal’ Order Mentioning Guatemala

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is the citizen of El Salvador who has claimed his March removal to a Salvadoran prison violated a 2019 final deportation order which precluded his deportation based on claims he would face persecution at the hand of a Central American gang, but Salvadoran citizens who lived in the neighborhood where the Abrego Garcia family was allegedly targeted told American reporters on Sunday that they had no memories of such gangland activities.

The final deportation order for Abrego Garcia denied his asylum claim, as well as his claim that he would face torture in El Salvador, but specifically granted a “withholding of removal” to one nation, either El Salvador or Guatemala, based on claims that Abrego Garcia would face persecution from the gang Barrio 18.

Barrio 18, according to the deportation order, extorted his family’s small business, and eventually claimed the threats would only end if Abrego Garcia agreed to join the gang. The order claimed the family eventually sent Abrego Garcia to illegally enter the United States to escape the gang’s reach, and that despite his leaving the country, Barrio 18 continued haranguing the family.

This harassment continued even after a series of moves that the order indicates led the Abrego Garcia family to relocate to Guatemala.

According to a Sunday report by USA Today, nearly a dozen former neighbors of the Abrego Garcia family denied claims of gang activity in their Salvadoran neighborhood, including some who asked not to be named due to concerns about reprisal from President Nayib Bukele.

The outlet reported that one man told reporters, “There was never any trouble with gangs here,” over the two decades he lived in the neighborhood.

Per the outlet, this source’s experience was “echoed by almost a dozen of Abrego Garcia’s close neighbors, friends and neighborhood acquaintances” its reporters interviewed.

One source told the outlet that the Abrego Garcia family left the neighborhood due to financial hardship, not because of persecution from gangs.

“The bank was foreclosing on their house, that’s why they had to sell up and leave,” a man named Fredy told USA Today, explaining, “They moved nearby to another house.”

Only at a bar described as a “short distance” away from Abrego Garcia’s childhood home did the reporters find a local willing to confirm gangland extortion happened nearby. The establishment’s owner claimed its previous proprietors sold the property due to the extortion payments to Barrio 18.

Despite the 2019 decision finding possible Barrio 18 persecution a valid reason to prevent deportation to a specific country, Abrego Garcia was himself deemed likely by two judges to be a member of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), a competing Central American gang recently designated a terrorist organization in the United States. He has denied this claim.

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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].