The wife of recently deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia told a court that while the couple lived in Maryland she faced physical and verbal abuse from her husband on multiple occasions, the earliest known petition for protection from domestic violence filed against the illegal immigrant shows. 

The complaint was followed by a second petition, in 2021, by wife Jennifer Vasquez against her husband for alleged domestic abuse. 

Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador with suspected gang ties, is now at the center of an intense court battle that could have wide-ranging impacts on President Donald Trump’s signature campaign issue and promise to voters: mass deportations of illegal immigrants that have crossed the border in record numbers in recent years. 

The detailed petition reviews by Just the News is the latest piece in the growing body of evidence suggesting Abrego Garcia wasn’t the peaceful, law-abiding father "from Maryland," as his wife and lawyers have claimed in the news media during the court battle to bring him home.

Vasquez, who recently said her deported husband is a “loving partner,” claimed in the August 2020 filing that during one incident Abrego Garcia locked their children in a basement room, slapped her, and broke her cellphone in anger when a police officer showed up at their residence.

“This is not the 1st time, it been [sic] a couple of occasion [sic] he takes my phone, and car [illegible] left without be able to call anyone,” Vasquez wrote in her petition. 

She also claimed that it was not the first time that Abrego Garcia physically abused her. “I have photos of all the bruises his [sic] left on my body,” she wrote. 

“In my house, his [sic] broken TV’s, my son’s tablet, my car windshield, phones, walls. Me and my kids are afraid now. His [sic] kicked me, bashed me, slapped me in the face,” Vasquez continued. 

Even more concerning, the Vasquez claimed that her husband also suggested that he would face no consequences if he killed her. 

“I also have a recorded [sic] that his [sic] told my ex-mother-in-law that even if he kills me no one can do anything to him,” she wrote.

Vasquez also cited several prior incidents in her complaint, including claims her husband grabbed her by the hair in 2019, dragged out of the car by her hair and left in the street in 2020, broke household items, and pushed her against a wall in 2020. 

This appears to be the earliest known petition Vasquez filed against her husband. 

She would later file a separate compliant the following year, according to a temporary protective order released publicly by the Trump administration earlier this month. In her second petition, Vasquez alleged Abrego Garcia “punched” and “scratched” her, leaving bruises. The case was dismissed after Vasquez failed to appear for the final hearing, court record shows. 

Vasquez previously commented on the earlier-revealed protective order, downplaying her original complaint.  

“After surviving domestic violence in a previous relationship, I acted out of caution following a disagreement with Kilmar by seeking a civil protective order, in case things escalated," she said in a statement." Things did not escalate, and I decided not to follow through with the civil court process. We were able to work through the situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling."

Abrego Garcia’s deportation back to his native El Salvador stirred significant controversy during President Trump’s first 100 days of his second term. 

For the administration, Abrego Garcia, was the poster boy for mass deportation efforts prioritizing dangerous criminals. 

Immigration authorities and a court had branded him as a member of the notorious – and violent – gang MS-13. And he was rounded up and deported alongside about 20 other alleged members of the gang to a mega-prison designed by the country’s president to detain the gang-bangers. 

His lawyers, however, challenged the removal by U.S. immigration authorities as unlawful on the grounds that a prior 2019 court order prohibited his removal to El Salvador specifically, because the Abrego Garcia allegedly feared persecution there.

But that same 2019 order did not stop authorities from deporting Abrego Garcia elsewhere. His lawyers insist that Abrego Garcia was never convicted of any gang affiliations. 

Other troubling details have emerged during the public battle of the illegal immigrant’s removal. Homeland Security records show Abrego Garcia was flagged in 2022 by the Biden administration as a "suspect alien" who was possibly involved in “human smuggling/trafficking” after a traffic stop hundreds of miles from his Maryland home, Just the News previously reported. 

Additionally, the car Abrego Garcia was driving during that traffic stop was owned by a man who was himself deported after pleading guilty to smuggling illegal aliens in 2020, Just the News reported.