May Day call to action: Free unionist Kilmar Abrego Garcia

UNI Global Union General Secretary Christy Hoffman is issuing the following urgent call to action for International Workers’ Day, 1 May:

On May Day, we come together to march, to inspire and to take stock of our collective power. This year, as we celebrate working-class solidarity, I have an urgent request: Stand with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a union member who has been violently separated from his family by the U.S. government.

This action is so critical because it is not just about one person. This is about standing against the creeping authoritarianism that targets workers, immigrants and marginalized people everywhere.

Snatched from his home and family in March, the U.S. government flew Kilmar, a father of three, without any justification to a maximum security prison in El Salvador from which no one ever returns.

He remains there despite a 2019 judicial order barring his deportation to El Salvador; the Trump administration’s admission that his deportation was “an administrative  error”; and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that the government must facilitate his return.

The Trump administration claims – implausibly – that they have no power to direct El Salvador to do this, and further insist that Kilmar will never return. And the President of El Salvador has taken the position he will not send Kilmar back to the United States.

The world must insist that El Salvador change its position so please download, adapt and deliver – via email, mail or in person – this letter to the Salvadoran embassy nearest you. 

This 1 May, we can put the principle of “injury to one is an injury to all” into action. We can demand justice for Kilmar Abrego Garcia. We can demand the safe return of a member of our global union family.

Find your local Salvadoran embassy here.

Embassy letter in solidarity with Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Carta de la embajada en solidaridad con Kilmar Abrego Garcia