The Trump administration’s argument that the mistakenly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13 is based largely on a confidential tip he and his family have long disputed.

The Trump administration's claims rely on the findings of an immigration court judge who declined to release Abrego Garcia on bond after an arrest, determining he could be a danger to the community.

But a review of court records supplied by both the Trump administration and Abrego Garcia’s attorneys show a more complex picture, one in which the same judge said that various representations given by police were “at odds” with one another.

Abrego Garcia’s immigration troubles began in 2019, when the Salvadoran national was arrested outside of a Maryland Home Depot while soliciting work alongside three other men. The officer who pulled over to question them described them as loitering.

Attorneys for Abrego Garcia, who had no prior criminal record, said he stood next to two men he recognized from previously seeking work outside the store, but “he had never interacted with them in any other context.”

When a Prince George's County police officer approached and later arrested three of the four men, Abrego Garcia was identified as being a member of MS-13 because he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat.

On a “Gang Field Interview Sheet,” police wrote that Abrego Garcia was “wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie with decorations of rolls of money covering the eyes, ears and mouth of the presidents on the separate denominations.”

“Officers know such clothing to be indicative of the Hispanic gang culture,” the form states, adding that the depiction on the hoodie was a reference to “see no evil, hear no evil and say no evil,” which they also argue is associated with MS-13.

They also cited a tip from a confidential informant who said Abrego Garcia was part of MS-13’s “Westerns” clique, which operates out of New York. Attorneys for Abrego Garcia say he has never lived in New York.

Abrego Garcia was never charged with any crime stemming from the matter, but he was nonetheless detained by immigration authorities for entering the country illegally.

When his attorneys at the time tried to contact Prince George’s County police to learn more about the gang accusation included on the field sheet, they were “informed that the detective had been suspended. A request to speak to other officers in the Gang Unit was declined.”

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