This article was updated April 30.
By Kit Slack
About 2:30 p.m, on the afternoon of March 28, 2019, the Hyattsville Police Department (HPD) stopped Kilmar Abrego Garcia, then 23 years old, along with three other men standing outside the Hyattsville Home Depot, on East-West Highway, according to information the HPD released April 21.
Hyattsville police say they stopped the men, in part, because some of them appeared to be concealing something under a car, where a police dog later found marijuana. The HPD also reported finding an ounce of a green leafy substance suspected to be marijuana in Abrego Garcia’s possession.
According to HPD reports, an officer recognized one of the other three men — not Abrego Garcia — as an MS-13 gang member. “At no time did any member of the HPD identify or file any reports classifying Abrego Garcia as a member of any gang,” according to an April 21 HPD press release.
Without charging any of the four men, Hyattsville police called in the Prince George’s County Police Department (PGPD) that afternoon, believing that a PGPD gang unit was investigating a murder with a suspected link to MS-13.
2019 immigration proceedings led to Abrego Garcia’s release and work permit
Abrego Garcia was transferred into ICE custody the same day that the HPD stopped him, according to his lawyers, and remained in custody for six months while his immigration case was litigated. Immigration judges initially denied him bond in part because a source said he was an MS-13 gang member.
The Baltimore Banner is among the news outlets that have reported that Ivan Mendez, the PGPD officer who associated Abrego Garcia with MS-13 the afternoon of March 28, 2019, was shortly afterward relieved from duty. He was suspended and later pled guilty to charges associated with an incident in December 2018 in which he gave confidential information to a sex worker in exchange for sexual acts.
A judge initially ordered Abrego Garcia’s removal to El Salvador, based on his illegal entry into the country in 2011 at the age of 16. However, ultimately Albrego Garcia was released, in October 2019. Another judge ordered a withholding of Abrego Garcia’s removal to El Salvador, finding that he would be in danger from a gang in El Salvador that had targeted his family.
Abrego Garcia was allowed to remain in the U.S. and get a work permit, and was not charged with any crime. The first Trump administration did not appeal the withholding of removal.
Six years later, detained and imprisoned
Though Abrego Garcia has never been charged with or convicted of any crime, he has been imprisoned in El Salvador since March 15, taken there by federal immigration enforcement agents who detained him in Maryland on March 12.
On April 10, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court said the Trump administration must facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release. That decision supported lower courts that said the government must seek to undo Abrego Garcia’s deportation to El Salvador in violation of the 2019 withholding of removal. The Supreme Court order says that the administration “should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps” to facilitate Abrego-Garcia’s return.
April 15, El Salvadoran President Nyib Bukele and top U.S. officials told reporters that Abrego Garcia would remain in prison in El Salvador indefinitely. April 29, President Donald Trump told ABC News that he could get Abrego Garcia back, and will not.
Van Hollen visits Abrego Garcia; Trump administration goes on press offensive
On April 16, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen, of Maryland, travelled to El Salvador. The Salvadoran government facilitated Van Hollen’s meeting with Abrego Garcia there on April 17. Van Hollen told CBS News that Abrego Garcia said during their meeting that he had been transferred to a detention facility in El Salvador with better conditions about a week before.
In the meantime, administration officials have continued to claim that Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 gang member, violent, a terrorist and involved in human trafficking, without pointing to any criminal charge or conviction.
April 16 through 18, as Van Hollen visited El Salvador, the Trump administration went on a press offensive, releasing a PGPD report from 2019, a 2021 protective order, a report dated April 2025 discussing a traffic stop in 2022, and a photo of tattoos on Abrego-Garcia’s fingers.
Abrego Garcia discussed in April 21 Hyattsville City Council Meeting
During the April 21 city council meeting, Councilmember Edouard Haba (Ward 4) asked HPD Chief Jarod Towers to explain how the Prince George’s County Police Department got involved on March 28, 2019.
Towers referred council members to PGD press releases from the first half of March of 2019 describing two homicides. Towers said the officer was aware of the homicide investigations, recognized an MS-13 gang member, and therefore called the Prince George’s County Police Department which was investigating the homicides. Towers said that the PGPD made the call to take all four men in for questioning.
Towers, who joined the HPD in 2021, said he had no information on how and when ICE became involved that afternoon, though he said that his research showed that HPD did not call them in. According to Towers, the HPD officer who stopped the man left the force in good standing in 2020, and moved out of the area.
Joanne Waszczak (Ward 1) asked whether the city kept gang field interview sheets. Towers said the HPD does not use or have access to the PGPD’s gang interview sheets or gang-related database. He said the HPD does do field interviews and keep records of them. Waszczak said she had worked in gang prevention in the past, and cautioned against making records of unverified claims about gang membership.
Mayor Robert Croslin reaffirmed the city’s commitment to its sanctuary city policy, which forbids the city police from enforcing federal immigration laws. “We don’t ask about immigration status,” said city administrator Tracey Douglas, adding that staff support the policy that the council enacted.
During public comment, resident Lee Cain was one of four residents who called on the city to repudiate the administration’s actions in Abrego Garcia’s case, support due process and other constitutional rights, and rebuild trust with immigrant residents.
One resident, who gave only the name of Marshall, said ICE should be allowed to intervene to remove immigrants here illegally.
