Court audio from 2020 reveals wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia said he hit her repeatedly

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an alleged MS-13 gang member deported to El Salvador, faces additional allegations of abuse after a newly released audio recording featured his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Aura, pleading to a judge for a temporary protection order against him.

In the audio recorded during an August 2020 court hearing, Sura had detailed the alleged physical abuse she suffered from Abrego Garcia, which included allegations that he grabbed her by the hair, slapped her, and hit her.

"On Wednesday, he hit me, like around like three in the morning, he would just wake up and like, hit me," she told the judge. Sura said she attempted to escape after witnessing a neighbor walk by and screamed for help. However, the attempt was unsuccessful. She said Abrego Garcia then "grabbed me from my hair, and then he slapped me," according to the audio obtained by USA Today.

Furthermore, Sura lamented in the recording that she attempted to get an order of protection against him in December 2019, but Abrego Garcia's family convinced her not to follow through with it. Sura wrote several allegations against Abrego Garcia in a court filing for the order. This included that she was "afraid of being too close to him. I have multiple photos/videos of how violent he can be and all the bruises he left me."

Abrego Garcia came into the spotlight after Democratic lawmakers claimed that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had wrongfully deported a "Maryland man" to El Salvador in March. However, it has since been established that Abrego Garcia is a Salvadoran national who was illegally residing in the United States and is an alleged member of the MS-13 gang, a designated foreign terrorist group. He was also ordered to be removed by two judges before his deportation.

It has also been revealed that Abrego Garcia was previously under investigation in Tennessee for human trafficking. Fox News obtained bodycam footage on Thursday that shows Abrego Garcia interacting with the Tennessee Highway Patrol during a 2022 traffic stop, which led to the allegations.

The debate over Abrego Garcia's deportation increased last month after Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) travelled to El Salvador to demand the release of the alleged gang member. Several other Democratic lawmakers then followed in the senator's footsteps, including Oregon Rep. Maxine Dexter, Arizona Rep. Yassamin Ansari, Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost, and California Rep. Robert Garcia.

In April, the United States Supreme Court upheld a lower court's ruling that ordered the Trump administration to arrange Abrego Garcia's return to the US. This, because the illegal immigrant was previously ordered to be removed from the country to anywhere other than El Salvador, as he told the Court at the time that he allegedly feared for his life if he were to be returned to his home country. The Trump administration has stated that Abrego Garcia's deportation was lawful, citing 2018 Court evidence that shows he is a suspected member of the MS-13 gang.

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has indicated that he has no plans to return Abrego Garcia to the US.