1. United States
2. Va.
3. Letter

I know you’ve heard of Kilmar Abrego García — the Maryland father deported to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison and later returned after public outcry. But have you heard of Jordin Alexander Melgar-Salmeron? I hope you have, and it’s just me who is late to the party. Jordin fled violence in El Salvador and built a life in Virginia. In 2021, he was sentenced to two years in prison for possessing an unregistered shotgun. On May 7, 2025 — just 30 minutes after a federal court halted his deportation — the Trump administration put him on a plane to CECOT in El Salvador, openly defying the order. Months later, he remains inside the mega-prison, which holds 40,000 detainees subjected to isolation, beatings, starvation, and psychological torture. You didn’t want to go cecot to bring back Abrego Garcia, because he wasn’t from Virginia. But Jordin is. Bring him back!