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UNION & IMMIGRANT RIGHTS GROUP JOIN FORCES TO FIGHT OUTRAGEOUS
DEPORTATION  
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Steve Morse
April 4, 2025
Labor Rise
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_ “In his pursuit of the life promised by the American dream,
Brother Kilmar was literally helping to build this great country. What
did he get in return? Arrest and deportation to a nation whose prisons
face outcry from human rights organizations." _

, Abrego Garcia Rally in Maryland April 4, 2025. Photo credit: Gene
Bruskin

 

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, 29, is a first-year sheet metal
apprentice in SMART (Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation
Workers); I’m a retired SMART member.  Kilmar has lived in Maryland
with his wife Jennifer and their three young children.  He was
abducted by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) union on March
12, and shipped to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador.  This
is where 200 people are incarcerated who the Trump regime illegally
deported from the US, claiming that they were Venezuelan gang
members.  Kilmar had finished a shift at work, picked up his
five-year old son from his mother-in-law’s and was driving home when
he was stopped by ICE and handcuffed.  Jennifer was called to take
their son and Kilmar was taken away.  She was never told where he was
taken; she only became aware of his whereabouts from photographs in a
news release. 

SMART writes, “In his pursuit of the life promised by the American
dream, Brother Kilmar was literally helping to build this great
country. What did he get in return? Arrest and deportation to a nation
whose prisons face outcry from human rights organizations
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SMART condemns his treatment in the strongest possible terms, and we
demand his rightful return.”

Jennifer refers to Kilmar as the love of her life, and has said,
“Kilmar is an excellent father; he has always been there for our
children and all of their needs.  Two of them are on the autistic
spectrum and our third has epilepsy.” 

CASA is a Maryland immigrant rights group (connected with CASA groups
nationwide) which started as Central American Solidarity Association,
which Kilmar is a member of.  CASA states, “In 2019, a judge issued
an order prohibiting the government from deporting Kilmar to El
Salvador based on the risk of persecution Kilmar would confront if
returned to El Salvador.”  He has no criminal record.  He has
never had any gang connections, but was falsely accused of that in
2019, which led to the judge’s order.  He had fled El Salvador in
2011 because he and his family were threatened by a gang with
extortion and abduction. 

His deportation is illegal in multiple ways: no one should be deported
without due process; no one should be shipped to a foreign prison; no
one should be kept incomunicado; and Kilmar had a specific court order
protecting him from being sent to El Salvador.   The Trump regime
has admitted that his deportation was “an administrative error”
but have not lifted a finger to bring about his return.  They claim
they are powerless to do so – this from a government which claims
the power to nullify collective bargaining for all Federal workers and
to cut 83,000 jobs from the Veterans Administration, among so many
other illegal and flagrant attacks on working people and democracy. 

On Friday, April 4, SMART and CASA co-sponsored a 45-minute rally of
about 100 people at CASA’s building in Prince George’s County,
Maryland.  See clip of full rally here:

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Speaking were Jennifer, her lawyer, a CASA spokesperson, SMART General
President Michael Coleman, and two County Councilmembers.  In
addition to all calling for Kilmar’s return to his family, speakers
emphasized: solidarity with all families and communities who are
facing these deportations and disappearances; that Kilmar’s
abduction was not an error but part of deliberate policy; and a call
to get ICE out of Maryland.   Later in the day, US District Judge
Paula Xinis ruled that the Trump government must get Kilmar back home
by Monday, April 7.  

Although it took about three weeks, my union stepped up.   Union
members and immigrant rights activists coming together for a joint
rally with press coverage: this is the kind of alliance that needs to
happen all over.   The April 5 Hands Off 2025 protests similarly are
a joining of organized workers and many civil society groups.  We can
beat oligarchy, dictatorship and fascism, but we have to fight smart
and united. 

_Steve Morse is a retired sheet metal worker, member of SMART Local
104, Oakland, CA. He is an organizer active in Veterans for Peace
and Labor Rise Climate Jobs Action Group._

_LABOR RISE CLIMATE JOBS ACTION GROUP is a grassroots organization of
rank-and-file union members working to amplify labor’s voice in the
climate struggle. The fight for climate jobs is a key strategy for
building power to bring about a Just Transition for workers,
communities, and the world. We are affiliated with Labor Rise for
Climate, Jobs, Justice, and Peace, a coalition of union activists that
grew out of 2018’s 35,000-person Rise for Climate, Jobs, and Justice
march in San Francisco._

* SMART
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* sheet metal workers
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* immigrant rights
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* CASA
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* Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia
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