Is deported Maryland dad Kilmar Abrego Garcia dead?

Update: Kilmar Abrega Garcia is not dead:

I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return. pic.twitter.com/U9y2gZpxCb

— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) April 18, 2025

Original story continues below.

Something is most definitely up. For two weeks, the headlines have been buzzing with the story of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland dad scooped up by ICE and mistakenly deported to the nightmarish CECOT prison in El Salvador.

The Supreme Court told Trump to bring him back. Trump ignored that, saying he didn’t have the power to retrieve someone from El Salvador, and anyway, even if he did, he still wouldn’t do it. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said he’s not doing it either, describing the idea as “preposterous”. Throughout all this, Trump and his cronies have done their best to smear Garcia as a gang member and human trafficker, hoping that if they lie hard enough, people will believe it.

But what if there was a morbidly straightforward reason why Trump and Bukele can’t bring Garcia home? What if he’s already dead?

Last known contact

On Mar. 12, Garcia finished work as a union apprentice sheet cutter and headed to his grandmother’s house to collect his severely autistic son. As he was leaving, ICE agents stopped his car, told him his “status had changed” and dragged him away.

Garcia was quickly transported to a Texas detention facility before being placed on a Mar. 15 flight to El Salvador, after which he was tossed into the CECOT prison. His wife, Jennifer Sura, identified him in an undated photo of inmates entering the facility, meaning he was alive as of late March/early April 2025.

Since then, despite numerous attempts, nobody has spoken to or seen Garcia. On Apr. 12, Michael G. Kozak, a senior official in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, insisted that Abrego Garcia was “alive and secure” but was unable to provide any evidence or firsthand information confirming that.

Attempts to reach him

Garcia has now vanished. Naturally, someone within a prison isn’t exactly able to host press conferences, but his attorneys and family have made many attempts to contact him, and all have failed. There have been no phone calls, no visits, and not one message purported to be from Garcia.

Trump’s own officials are now unable to confirm whether he’s alive or not, with U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis left exasperated by Justice Department attorney Drew Ensign saying he’s unable to provide the court with any firm details or proof of life.

Many were hoping this question would be resolved yesterday, as Senator Chris Van Hollen flew to El Salvador to request a visit to CECOT in which he’d confirm whether Garcia is alive. Despite exhausting every possible route, Van Hollen was blocked at every turn:

“I asked the Vice President [of El Salvador] if I could meet with Mr Abrego Garcia. He said “well you need to make earlier provisions if you need to visit CECOT”. I said “well I’m not interested in taking a tour of CECOT, I just want to meet with Mr Abrego Garcia”. He said that he was not able to make that happen. I asked him if I came back next week I would be able to see Mr Abrego Garcia. He said he couldn’t promise that either. So I asked him if I could get on the phone – either a video phone or just a phone – and talk to Mr Abrego Garcia so I could just ask him how he’s doing and I could report back to his family. He said he could not arrange that.”

It’s worth underlining that the reason Garcia was legally permitted to remain in the United States was because a judge found his story of being targeted by MS-13 credible. As such, his now being shoved into a cell full of suspected MS-13 members probably doesn’t bode well for his survival.

I mean, there are disturbing aerial photographs of what appear to be large pools of blood at CECOT. Let’s face it, it doesn’t look good. Not to get a bit tinfoil hat, but the near-constant smearing of Garcia as a brutal MS-13 leader would be the best way to pre-emptively deflate public anger if the Trump administration knew that, sooner or later, they’ll have to reveal he’s been dead for weeks.