The Respondent is a 24-year-old native of El Salvador
(My note: the respondent is Abrego Garcia). He was born in 1995 in the Los Nogales neighborhood of San Salvador. The Respondent testified that he fears returning to his country because the Barrio 18 gang targeted him and threatened to kill him due to his family's pupusa business. His mother, Cecilia, ran the business out of their home, and although there was no formal storefront, everyone in town knew about "Pupuseria Cecilia." The Respondent’s father, brother, and two sisters all helped run the family business. The Respondent’s role was to buy supplies from the grocery store and, along with his brother, make deliveries four days a week.
At some point, Barrio 18 realized the family was earning money and began extorting Cecilia. They first demanded monthly payments, then weekly payments. They threatened harm to the Respondent, his older brother Cesar, and the rest of the family if they didn't comply. They also told Cecilia that if she couldn't pay, she could hand over Cesar to join their gang. The family paid what they could and hid Cesar from the gang. On one occasion, gang members came to the family home and threatened to kill Cesar if the family didn’t pay. After that, Cesar was sent to the United States for his safety.
Note: Cesar is Abrego Garcia's older brother.
After Cesar left, the gang started recruiting the Respondent
(My note: the respondent is Abrego Garcia), telling Cecilia she could avoid future extortion payments if she let him join. She refused. The gang then threatened to kill the Respondent. When the Respondent was around 12 years old, gang members again came to the home, threatening to take him because the family wasn’t making payments. The Respondent’s father managed to prevent this by paying them all the money they demanded. The gang continued to watch the Respondent as he traveled to and from school, and the gang members were visibly armed and heavily tattooed.
Eventually, the family moved to the 10th of October neighborhood, about a 10-minute drive away. However, members of Barrio 18 tracked them down and notified their fellow gang members there. They visited the new house, again demanding rent payments, and twice threatened to rape and kill the Respondent's two sisters and harm the Respondent. Out of fear, the parents kept the Respondent inside the home as much as possible. Ultimately, the family closed the pupusa business and moved again, this time to Los Andes, about 15 minutes away. Even there, they kept the Respondent indoors most of the time because of the ongoing threats. After four months of living in fear, the Respondent’s parents sent him to the United States.
Even though the Respondent’s father was a former policeman, the family never reported the extortion to the authorities. Gang members had directly threatened Cecilia, warning her that if she went to the police, they would kill the entire family. The family believed them, knowing firsthand the rampant police corruption in El Salvador and fearing that reporting it would do no good.
Today, even though the family shut down their business and fled, Barrio 18 continues to harass and threaten the Respondent’s two sisters, his parents, and a brother-in-law who now lives with them in Guatemala.