Despite court rulings and pleas from his wife, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi defended the mistaken deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador by claiming his removal made his wife and children "safer" without him.
Bondi doubled down during a Wednesday night interview with Fox News, saying that not only is the U.S. safer without him, but his own family is better off.
"America is safer because he is gone. Maryland is safer because he is gone. And that woman that he is married to and that child he had with her? They are safer tonight because he is out of our country and sitting in El Salvador where he belongs," Bondi said.
Bondi grotesquely claims that Abrego Garcia's wife and child are better off with him gone pic.twitter.com/Go20t3c6IS
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 17, 2025
The attorney general pointed to a 2021 temporary restraining order filed after a domestic dispute. However, the order was dismissed a month later when his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, chose not to pursue it and said the couple had reconciled and attended counseling.
"That is not a justification for ICE's action of abducting him and deporting him to a country where he was supposed to be protected from deportation," Vasquez Sura told CNN Wednesday. "Kilmar has always been a loving partner and father, and I will continue to stand by him and demand justice for him."
Garcia, a legally protected resident of Maryland, was deported in what the Trump administration has admitted was an "administrative error," according to the Daily Beast. Originally fleeing gang violence at 16, he had been granted a "withholding of removal" order preventing his deportation due to credible fears for his safety if returned.
Despite no court ever finding him guilty of gang involvement, his name became tied to an MS-13 accusation based on secondhand claims from a suspended police officer.
Now held in El Salvador's notorious Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) prison—where inmates are confined nearly 24 hours a day and denied basic rights—Abrego Garcia's detention has sparked legal and human rights concerns.
Although the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ordered that the government "facilitate" Abrego Garcia's release from Salvadoran custody, the administration has so far refused to take action, instead leaning on claims of gang ties.
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