A second deportation under President Donald Trump’s draconian immigration crackdown has been tied to a disgraced police officer — exposing a disturbing pattern in how the administration is removing powerless people from the United States, largely without due process.
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This time, it’s Kilmar Abrego Garcia — a Maryland father of three wrongfully deported to El Salvador by the administration’s admission — whose case has drawn international scrutiny. The New Republicrevealed that the local police detective who first labeled him an MS-13 gang member was later indicted for misconduct.
Related: Bad Wisconsin cop’s tattoo claim helped deport gay asylum-seeker to Salvadoran prison hellscape: report
The Maryland officer, Ivan Mendez of the Prince George’s County Police Department, was suspended and convicted for leaking confidential police information to a sex worker in 2020. According to The New Republic, in 2019, Mendez filled out the “Gang Field Interview Sheet” that ICE later used to claim Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13 — citing, among other things, that he wore a Chicago Bulls hoodie and hat. ICE also claimed a confidential informant tied him to a New York gang clique despite Abrego Garcia never living there.
Wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, speaks during a news conference to discuss his husband’s arrest and deportation during a news conference at Cannon House Office Building on April 9, 2025 in Washington, D.C.Alex Wong/Getty Images
An immigration judge ultimately granted Abrego Garcia “withholding of removal,” barring his deportation to El Salvador due to the risk of harm — a ruling the Trump administration knowingly ignored when it deported him in March. The U.S. Supreme Court has since ruled the deportation illegal.
The revelation comes just days after USA Today reported that a different disgraced cop in Wisconsin — former Milwaukee police sergeant Charles Cross Jr., fired for crashing his car while intoxicated — was responsible for falsely identifying gay Venezuelan asylum-seeker Andry José Hernández Romero as a gang member, leading to his deportation to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison.
Both men are now imprisoned inside CECOT — a sprawling penal complex widely condemned for human rights abuses — after being swept up in Trump’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to expedite deportations without hearings.
Related:Trump and El Salvador's president attack transgender people during White House meeting
And yet the evidence tying both men to gangs was thin at best — and in Hernández Romero’s case, based entirely on tattoos honoring his parents.
The latest revelations come amid growing outrage following Monday’s Oval Office appearance by Trump and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. Instead of addressing their controversial deportation pact or court orders demanding Abrego Garcia’s return, the two authoritarian leaders used the White House platform to attack transgender women in sports.
Trump openly bragged about saving transphobia for the campaign trail. Bukele mocked complying with the Supreme Court, calling the order to return Abrego Garcia “preposterous.”
