Union leaders, community supporters to rally Friday, April 4, in support of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia and family

April 3, 2025

Home>News>Front Page>Union leaders, community supporters to rally Friday, April 4, in support of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia and family

LANGLEY PARK, MD. — Leaders of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART), as well as members and community supporters, will rally at CASA headquarters in Langley Park, Md., to support Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia and his family.

WHAT: Rally to support Kilmar Abrego Garcia and family

WHO: SMART leaders and members, CASA, community supporters

WHEN: Friday, April 4, 10 a.m.

WHERE: 8151 15th St., Langley Park, MD 20783

Abrego Garcia is a first-year SMART Local 100 apprentice, Maryland resident and father of a five-year-old son with disabilities; the Trump administration conceded in a court filing that it had mistakenly deported him to El Salvador “because of an administrative error.”

Maryland Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks (both D) said on Tuesday, April 1: “In court yesterday, the Trump Administration admitted that a Maryland father with protected status was deported due to an administrative error. That is unacceptable. This incident underscores the Administration’s complete disregard for due process rights as they pursue their indiscriminate mass deportation policy. The Trump Administration must take immediate action to right this wrong.”

SMART General President Michael Coleman issued the following statement on Monday: “Kilmar, our Local 100 brother, is a legal resident of Maryland and a sheet metal apprentice who works full-time to support his five-year-old son, who has autism and a hearing impairment. It is my understanding that he has fully complied with requirements to regularly check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has no criminal record in the U.S. and is an example of the hard work that SMART members pride themselves on. And yet, the Trump administration still — seemingly with full knowledge of his protected status — deported him to El Salvador, leaving his wife to discover that information from photographs in a news release. 

“In his pursuit of the life promised by the American dream, Brother Kilmar was literally helping to build this great country. What did he get in return? Arrest and deportation to a nation whose prisons face outcry from human rights organizations. SMART condemns his treatment in the strongest possible terms, and we demand his rightful return.”

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