Union solidarity: act to bring Kilmar home!

Posted: 15 April 2025

Kilmar Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador after his family was violently threatened by gangs. He made a home in the USA, where the courts granted him legal protection in 2019 – and where he met his wife, had a child, and became a sheet metal apprentice and union member. On 12 March, while driving his son home, Kilmar was unlawfully snatched by US immigration enforcement agents. Donald Trump’s regime deported him three days later and he is now imprisoned without trial in El Salvador’s max-security Terrorism Confinement Center, despite never having been charged with or convicted of a crime in either country.

Last week, even the Trump-supporting US Supreme Court ruled his deportation illegal and ordered Trump’s government to facilitate his return to the US. But Trump is refusing – reflecting his defiance of any legal accountability as he pursues his far-right racist agenda.

Kilmar’s union, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, is fighting to bring him home. They are setting an example for the labour movement around the world – let’s mobilise our unions to support them and send solidarity around the world. Watch and share Sean McGarvey, President of the North American Building Trades Unions federation, demanding Kilmar’s return.

A Labour Campaign for Free Movement supporter and UNISON activist has drafted this motion – please propose it urgently in your union branches and other labour movement organisations!

Support Kilmar. Support justice. Stand with SMART Local 100. 

Notes: 

  1. Kilmar Abrego Garcia was unlawfully detained and forcibly deported by ICE agents on March 12, 2025, while driving home from work as a sheet metal apprentice with his son.
  2. Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador after enduring threats and extortion from the violent Barrio 18 gang. These threats were so severe that a U.S. immigration judge granted him legal protection in 2019. 
  3. He is said to be imprisoned in El Salvador’s CECOT prison, infamous for inhumane conditions, torture, and gang violence. 
  4. On Thursday, April 10, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision that backed a federal judge’s order requiring the government to facilitate the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the United States.
  5. The Trump administration has defended his deportation, calling him a terrorist and gang member.
  6. A campaign to bring him home is being run by his union, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART).
  7. This is a wider part of the Trump administration’s anti-migrant policies and increase in deportations. This represents the dangerous tactics of the Trump administration to forgo due process and human rights in pursuit of his populist, racist agenda.
  8. Here in the UK, Labour ministers have also promised to increase immigration raids on workplaces. Such raids are an attack on workers and have previously been used to undermine trade union organisation and even deport union activists.

Resolves:

  1. Send a statement of support to Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his union branch, SMART Local 100 (info@smart100.org; 4725 Silver Hill Road, Suitland, MD 20746, USA)
  2. Support demonstrations and public events calling for his release and return.
  3. Support further activity of the US labour movement in countering deportations.
  4. Follow SMART Union’s example and stand up for our own members and our communities if and when they are threatened by immigration raids and deportations. This includes informing all our members of their rights in the event of a raid.