The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART) is calling on Americans to contact their representatives and senators to demand the Trump administration facilitate the immediate return of a Maryland man wrongfully deported to El Salvador.
Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadorian national legally living in the U.S. with no criminal record, was arrested by ICE agents in Baltimore last month on accusations of being an MS-13 gang member. Abrego Garcia, who hasn’t been charged or convicted of any crime, has since been detained at the Center for Terrorism Confinement, a maximum-security prison accused by human rights groups of torture and due process violations.
No evidence has been presented to connect Abrego Garcia to MS-13, an international criminal gang designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. The allegation is based on Abrego Garcia’s 2019 arrest—for which he was never charged—after a confidential informant claimed he was a member of an MS-13 chapter in New York, despite never living there. Court filings suggest Abrego Garcia was profiled for wearing a Chicago Bulls hat at the time of his 2019 arrest.
“Abrego Garcia is a SMART Local 100 first-year apprentice who currently works full-time to support his young family,” SMART said in a statement. “He came to the United States as a teenager 15 years ago, and according to his attorneys, he was legally authorized to live and work in this country and had fully complied with his responsibilities under the law. He did not have a criminal record in the United States.
“Like many of us, Abrego Garcia works full-time to support his wife and his five-year-old son. SMART is demanding that he is returned to his family.”
Sean McGarvey, the president of North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), which represents more than three million workers in the U.S. and Canada, demanded Abrego Garcia be returned to the U.S. during his federation’s legislative conference last week in Washington.
“We need to make our voices heard,” McGarvey said. “We’re not red, we’re not blue, we’re the building trades; the backbone of America. You want to build a five billion dollar data center? Want more six-figure careers with healthcare, retirement, and no college debt? You don’t call Elon Musk! You call us!”
“And yeah, that means all of us. All of us! Including our brother, SMART apprentice Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who we demand to be returned to us and his family now! Bring him home!” McGarvey said to a crowd who stood and applauded him.
>> For more details on Abrego Garcia’s case and how Trump’s refusal to bring him home has sparked a constitutional crisis, see our related story.
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