Washington, D.C. — Jobs With Justice Executive Director Erica Smiley issued the following statement calling on the U.S. government to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia home:
“The Trump administration’s ongoing assault on our freedoms, the rule of law, and the Constitution of the United States has reached crisis level as they continue to refuse a unanimous Supreme Court ruling to bring home Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Kilmar is a legal, permanent resident of the United States who was wrongfully arrested, deported, and now detained in an El Salvador prison that is effectively a concentration camp.
We are angry, and outraged, and demand the immediate return of Kilmar to his family and friends in Maryland. Kilmar’s deportation is a direct attack on all workers’ fundamental rights. Kilmar did nothing wrong. Kilmar is like so many of us–simply trying to live a decent life and support his wife and five-year-old son. Kilmar has followed the law, is fully authorized to be in the United States, and is a first-year apprentice of SMART Local 100. Kilmar represents so much of what we champion at Jobs With Justice, and it’s why we’re joining in solidarity with Kilmar’s family, unions, workers, and all decent people calling for Kilmar’s safe return home.
Trump’s deportation forces sent Kilmar to El Salvador “because of an administrative error” and–despite acknowledging this error–are refusing to bring him home, even after the Supreme Court unanimously upheld an order to bring Kilmar home.
Kilmar now finds himself in some of the most brutal conditions imaginable, with a government refusing to do the right thing.
Even as the government refuses to do the right thing, working people and their unions are leading efforts to bring Kilmar and other wrongfully disappeared union members and worker leaders home. Unions are mobilizing from coast-to-coast, organizing and holding actions, and joining lawsuits. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA has even organized a boycott of Avelo–the airline working on behalf of the Trump administration to deport people like Kilmar to El Salvador.
Over the past several weeks, this administration has continued to send hundreds of people to a mega prison in another country, all while denying due process, responsibility, and a blanket refusal to remedy their mistakes. The administration is testing our willingness to accept the arrest, deportation, and imprisonment of anyone they find undesirable, whether they are undocumented, legal residents, or U.S. citizens.
To the Trump administration, we say this: We will not cower. We will not hide. We will not acquiesce to these despicable, cruel, and violent acts. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
To Kilmar Abrego Garcia, his family, friends, and neighbors–we are in solidarity with you and we will not stop until the administration brings Kilmar–and all those wrongfully detained–home.”
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Jobs With Justice is the country’s leading nonprofit in the fight for workplace and economic democracy. Comprising a national network of local affiliates in nearly every state, Jobs With Justice brings together coalitions of unions, worker organizations, community groups, students, and faith institutions to win concrete improvements in people’s lives.
