# Do we know \*WHY\* Kilmar Abrego Garcia? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [July 7, 2025, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599 "2025-07-07T17:22:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2025, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599/21 "2025-07-08T17:48:05Z")
Doctored implies an intentional attempt to make the tattoos appear other then they are. Someone did use image editing software to annotate the tattoos with highly questionable meanings. It’s clear though that Trump thinks (for a certain strained definition of _think_) the annotations are tattoos. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2025, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599/22 "2025-07-08T17:50:19Z")
But trump already said the tattoos were on his knuckles, so that’s that. His also still believes he helped stop the California wildfires. And that he helped broker a peace between India and Pakistan. And the nuclear site was obliterated. Very disrespectful to gainsay him. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2025, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599/23 "2025-07-08T17:52:51Z")
I assume that I am going to be on a list of disrespecters and doubters? ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2025, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599/24 "2025-07-08T18:00:50Z")
You don’t need to see KAG’s hands you only have to see the photo, [![](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/74RGMC6yyqczniPTWEyQIQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MDtjZj13ZWJw/https://media.zenfs.com/en/thewrap.com/724aff136f2f1a50fc01dccd1aadb0f2) ](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/74RGMC6yyqczniPTWEyQIQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MDtjZj13ZWJw/https://media.zenfs.com/en/thewrap.com/724aff136f2f1a50fc01dccd1aadb0f2) and then ask ‘who puts annotation above and below their symbolic tattoos?’ ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2025, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599/25 "2025-07-08T18:07:57Z")
"Terry Terry Terry…do you want me to show ya’ the pitcha’? Only 1291 days left of this fool. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2025, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599/26 "2025-07-08T19:27:26Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Should be easy enough to prove. Isn’t he somewhere that his hands could be examined But why would MAGA believe that? Take a picture, “You edited out the letters and numbers!” Testimony by someone who saw it? “That’s a notorious libtard with TDS!”, no matter who it actually is. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2025, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599/27 "2025-07-08T23:19:57Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Trump saw a picture of his knuckles with MS13 on them and decided his guilt. It’s up to everyone else to do whatever it takes to make sure he stays behind bars. Other way around. Trump declared his guilt, then they faked the photo. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2025, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599/28 "2025-07-08T23:49:30Z")
The photo upthread does look really fake. The MS13 is darker than his other tattoos. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2025, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599/29 "2025-07-08T23:54:14Z")
It’s not even intended as a fake photo. It’s intended as an annotated photo, with the typed-in characters being the “explanation” of what the symbols mean. Except that Trump and his followers are too stupid to understand even that lie. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2025, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599/30 "2025-07-08T23:56:22Z")
Wait, really? Who decided that is how those tattoos are supposed to be read? ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2025, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599/31 "2025-07-09T00:12:08Z")
Not only are the numbers and letters darker than the actual tattoos, they don’t follow the contours of his hand. It’s a very obvious Photoshop job. As for why he was deported: ICE has not been careful about whom they grab up. The question of whether Abrego Garcia should be deported was already before the courts, and a judge had already ruled that he couldn’t be sent to El Salvador. They sent him there, anyway. They called it an “administrative error,” but given what we’ve seen of the Trump administration, I don’t think it was an error so much as not caring about the authority of the courts. And once the case became a cause celebre, the Trump administration dug in their heels rather than admit wrongdoing. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2025, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599/32 "2025-07-09T00:14:03Z")
Now there is a ridiculous claim that he trafficked thousands of people. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2025, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599/33 "2025-07-09T00:17:40Z")
Some comedian said something about meeting Meryl Streep and wondering what happened to the Getty Images tattoo on her face. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599/34 "2025-07-11T01:41:20Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > _If_ he really was guilty of the human trafficking charge (that he brought _thousands_ of people to the United States), why the rush to just deport him? Doesn’t that mean he would get away with his crimes? Excerpt from a [New York Times article](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/us/politics/abrego-garcia-doj-trump.html) (paywalled) about the administration’s plan to deport this “dangerous criminal.” > “If this case is as meritorious as the attorney general has said, then you would think they would want to see it through to trial and conviction so that they could hold him accountable for his crimes,” said Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney in Detroit who teaches at the University of Michigan Law School. “The idea that they may seek to deport him if they don’t get their way at the detention stage is remarkable.” ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599/35 "2025-07-11T12:29:36Z")
So his big crime is “human trafficking”. He wasn’t leaving sealed truckloads of people in the desert like a coyote, was he? Admittedly, I’m dumb, but when I first heard the term “human trafficking”, I thought it was the smuggling of people against their will for prostitution or sex slavery. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599/36 "2025-07-11T13:29:50Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > when I first heard the term “human trafficking”, I thought it was the smuggling of people against their will for prostitution or sex slavery. It did, now it means whatever they want it to mean. Drive your brown neighbor to the store? HUMAN TRAFFICKER!!! ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599/37 "2025-07-11T13:54:33Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > when I first heard the term “human trafficking”, I thought it was the smuggling of people against their will for prostitution or sex slavery. Or forced labor of other kinds. But yes, the “forced” part seems to me to be a major part of the proper definition. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599/38 "2025-07-11T14:12:19Z")
Note that the Department of Justice plans to prosecute him for trafficking thousands of people but want him to remain in detention awaiting the trial. They have said that if a judge orders his release pending the trial, they will instead opt to deport him. Their goal seems to be that he never walks free on American soil. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599/39 "2025-07-11T15:27:02Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > They have said that **if a judge orders his release pending the trial** , they will instead opt to deport him. **[The bolded already happened](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.tnmd.104622/gov.uscourts.tnmd.104622.43.0_1.pdf)**, a little over two weeks ago. I assume (but don’t know) that Abrego is nevertheless still in detention. Further reading below - IMHO oddly written. Some sentences read like Judge Barbara Holmes _ordered_ Abrego’s release; others read like Holmes merely said Abrego _can be_ released (presumably at the government’s pleasure). [https://www.npr.org/2025/06/22/g-s1-73970/federal-judge-kilmar-abrego-garcia-bail-ice-detention](https://www.npr.org/2025/06/22/g-s1-73970/federal-judge-kilmar-abrego-garcia-bail-ice-detention) ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599/40 "2025-07-11T15:35:41Z")
I wonder if the gov has any case at all in a theoretical fair trial. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-know-why-kilmar-abrego-garcia/1020599.md?page=3)