What The Hell America!

The White House has “weaponized” an accusation of domestic violence in the case of a man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, and in the process, forced his wife and her children into hiding, a national network of advocates for immigrant victims of domestic violence argued in a letter Thursday.  

The Alliance for Immigrant Survivors said that it supports Jennifer Vasquez Sura’s campaign to see her husband returned to the United States, and argued that the Trump administration’s decision to disseminate a petition for a protective order filed by Vasquez Sura against Kilmar Abrego Garcia has turned her experience of domestic violence into “political theater” at her own expense. 

Abrego Garcia, whose detention and arrest have captured national attention and become a rallying cry among Democrats for immigrants’ due process rights, remains in El Salvador. The Trump administration and federal courts are caught in a standoff over the case after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration must facilitate his return.

His wife, Vasquez Sura, has become one of his most visible advocates.

“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,” letter reads. The alliance is responsible for helping craft immigration policy proposals for the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence. 

Advocates argue that the Trump administration’s decision to use the protective order in its case against Abrego Garcia’s return could have broader consequences for the movement to end gender-based violence. 

“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,” the letter reads. 

Vasquez Sura told The Washington Post that she and her children had gone into hiding and were living in a safe house after the Trump administration disseminated the family’s home address on social media. Their Maryland address was not redacted when the White House shared a copy of a temporary protection order Vasquez Sura had filed after an incident of domestic violence in June 2021. 

According to the petition, the filing stemmed from an argument in the couple’s car, during which Vasquez Sura’s husband became angry, eventually striking her. The incident left her with bruises, a scratch above her eye and a ripped shirt. The order was dismissed a month later after Vasquez Sura failed to appear in court. 

“We were able to work through this situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling,” Vasquez Sura said in a statement shared by her attorney with news outlets. “Kilmar has always been a loving partner and father, and I will continue to stand by him and demand justice for him.”

Abrego Garcia was detained and deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador last month, a move that the Trump administration initially said was due to an “administrative error.” 

In the weeks that followed, the White House and President Donald Trump himself have deployed a messaging campaign alleging that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 Salvadoran gang, and that returning him to the country would hurt public safety. Abrego Garcia, who was removed within three days of being detained without a hearing, has never been convicted of, or charged with, being a member of a gang. The protective order petition became part of the White House’s argument, too.

The Department of Homeland Security shared a copy of the petition on the social network X; it  had been viewed 4.3 million times as of late Thursday. During a White House briefing April 16, press secretary Karoline Leavitt waved court documents and called Abrego Garcia an “alleged woman beater.”

In an interview published Friday, Trump told TIME Magazine that he wasn’t convinced the Supreme Court had ordered Abrego Garcia’s return — “I leave that to my lawyers,” he said — and added that Abrego Garcia “wasn’t a saint. He was MS-13. He was a wife beater and he had a lot of things that were very bad, you know, very, very bad.”

The Alliance said the administration’s actions do not “demonstrate a serious commitment to ending violence against women.” 

“Survivors deserve control over their own destinies, not the exploitation of their families and private lives to serve political goals,” the letter argued. 

Since Trump took office, the actions of his administration have put key domestic violence resources in jeopardy. A temporary freeze spooked nonprofits that rely on federal funding, including many established organizations aiding those experiencing intimate partner violence. Other organizations see no way to comply with executive orders targeting “illegal DEI,” risking their funding.

The Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women, a major funder of services for domestic violence shelters, hotlines and prevention efforts for nearly 30 years, took down its notices of funding opportunities for the 2025 fiscal year. There is no indication of when these grant applications will go online, risking funds that anti-violence groups have depended on for years. 

This week the DOJ canceled hundreds of grants from the Office of Justice Programs, removing promised monies pledged to victims services programs across the nation. The National Center for Victims of Crime lost nearly $3 million, funding it  depended on to run its Victims Connect Resource Center for victims of all kinds of crime. Renee Williams, the CEO, wrote on LinkedIn that the organization would struggle to staff phone lines past this week. A banner on the website already notes that hotline wait times are longer than usual.

An email sent to awardees of canceled grants by Maureen Henneberg, the acting head of the Office of Justice Programs, informed organizations that their work doesn’t support the priorities of the department. She also wrote that funding will focus on several areas, including “supporting American victims of trafficking and sexual assault.”

In a departure from previous statements, Trump’s proclamation recognizing April as National Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Month incorrectly blamed undocumented immigrants for rising rates of sexual violence. (Trump himself was found liable in federal court for sexual abuse in May 2023.) 

In a statement to The Washington Post, Attorney General Pam Bondi identified herself as “a lifelong advocate for victims of crimes against women.” She said services for victims services would not be impacted by the cancellations, and that grantees will have a chance to appeal. Some cancellations have already been reversed, per NBC News.

Stephanie Love-Patterson, the president and CEO of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, told Mother Jones that this latest round of funding cuts “will have devastating, real-life consequences for survivors and their children.”