AIS Statement: The Alliance for Immigrant Survivors Stands with Jennifer Vasquez Sura

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April 24, 2025 — The Alliance for Immigrant Survivors is a national network of advocates and organizations working to end domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and other forms of abuse. Our goal is to end gender-based violence in our country and build a healthier society where all people can live in safety and with dignity.

We are rooted in survivor centered and survivor led principles of advocacy. In this moment, that means trusting Jennifer Vasquez Sura, wife of Kilmar Ábrego Garcia, to make the best decisions for herself and her family and to follow her lead.

She has made her position clear. She wants her husband home.

The government has admitted that Kilmar Ábrego Garcia was sent to CECOT, a notorious high security prison in El Salvador, by mistake. Despite multiple court orders directing the government to facilitate Mr. Ábrego Garcia’s return to the United States — including from the Supreme Court - the administration has refused to make things right and return him to his family in Maryland.

More recently, the administration has weaponized a decision made by Jennifer Vasquez Sura to seek a temporary protection order in 2021 in order to justify her husband’s illegal kidnapping and indefinite incarceration. To be clear, nothing in Kilmar Ábrego Garcia’s history gives the government permission or an excuse to violate his right to due process or legitimize his illegal removal from the U.S.

Let us be clear: Our movement does not advocate for the erosion of due process or the mass expulsion of immigrants as a solution to violence against women in this country. This is not what makes communities safer.

We know what works to prevent and respond to gender-based violence — to give each survivor the opportunity to decide what safety, dignity, and justice means for themselves and their families. Policies and elected officials should allow survivors to be the experts when it comes to their own needs.

The administration has also posted Jennifer Vasquez Sura’s home address on social media. As a result, she has been forced to go into hiding with her children at a safe house for fear of retaliation and harassment.

Attempts to traumatize and intimidate survivors, and turn their experiences into political theater are unacceptable and damaging — both to the families involved and the larger goal of ending gender-based violence. It does not demonstrate a serious commitment to ending violence against women.

Politicizing their pain sends the message to survivors that seeking help could have tremendous negative consequences far beyond their control. This makes survivors far less likely to come forward to report crime and get help. Survivors deserve control over their own destinies, not the exploitation of their families and private lives to serve political goals.

We will not allow our movement to be co-opted by any administration or to be used as a tool to terrorize marginalized and vulnerable communities. We call on the administration to stop politicizing domestic violence in an effort to violate the due process rights of immigrants. Our families, children, and society deserve safety and solutions, not division and fear.

We stand with Jennifer Vasquez Sura. Bring Kilmar Ábrego Garcia home.