![the Open Siddur Project [logo]](https://opensiddur.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Open-Siddur-Project-Logo-2016.svg){kind=logo}
| Contribute a translation | Source (English) |
|---|---|
May the One who blessed our ancestors bless and protect Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia,[1] ”A Salvadoran citizen who resided in Maryland, United States, and was deported to the maximum security prison Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador in March 2025. Despite having both a U.S. immigration judge’s order protecting him from removal to El Salvador since 2019 and a wife and five-year-old child who are both American citizens, he was deported due to what the Trump administration called “an administrative error”. The Trump administration has since argued that this error cannot be rectified by American courts since they have no jurisdiction over Abrego Garcia in El Salvador.” (Wikipedia) along with all other detainees and deportees whose lives and families have been jeopardized by the actions of ICE and the US government. May he be protected and safe, though he was abducted in error and deported by the administration to a dangerous prison in El Salvador, and may he be returned speedily to his family in Marylan. | |
May the people in the government who advocate for and carry out kidnapping and disappearances be humbled, and may their plans be resisted and thwarted. | |
As we enter the holiday of Passover, may freedom and liberty thrive for all those persecuted and for all the world. |
This mi sheberakh by Rabbi David Seidenberg, for the safety and safe return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia detained by the United States government and deported “in error” to captivity under dangerous and vulnerable conditions in El Salvador, was first shared on his Facebook page on 10 April 2025. There he introduced the prayer, writing:
Everyone by now is familiar with the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, whom ICE/Trump deported mistakenly, taking him away from his family and depositing him in a notoriously dangerous prison in El Salvador. Given the danger he is in, I think it would be right to say a mishebeirakh on his behalf this shabbat.
Though ordered by the court to return him, the Trump admin claims it has no power to do so. In other words, disappearing people is just fine, without due process and even by mistake, and the government does not need to correct its mistake.
This should not be a partisan question — no one in their right mind would advocate mistakenly deporting the wrong people and refusing to help them return. Hopefully the Supreme Court will reinstate the lower court’s order for Garcia to be returned, but what will happen is uncertain.
It almost goes without saying that a mi shebeirakh for the hostages should already be on the docket for reciting. This added mi shebeirakh would come after that. And I think the prayer should be in English rather than Hebrew, to make sure everyone is cognizant of the issue.
Notes
| 1 | ”A Salvadoran citizen who resided in Maryland, United States, and was deported to the maximum security prison Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador in March 2025. Despite having both a U.S. immigration judge’s order protecting him from removal to El Salvador since 2019 and a wife and five-year-old child who are both American citizens, he was deported due to what the Trump administration called “an administrative error”. The Trump administration has since argued that this error cannot be rectified by American courts since they have no jurisdiction over Abrego Garcia in El Salvador.” (Wikipedia) |
|---|
“Mi sheBerakh for the safety and safe return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, by Rabbi David Seidenberg” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.
(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in shared links on social media.)
- Properly attribute the work to David Seidenberg.
- Clearly indicate the date you accessed the work and in what ways, if any, you modified it. (If you have adapted the work, let us know so that the contributor might consider endorsing your revision.)
- Provide the stable link to this resource: <https://opensiddur.org/?p=61252>.
- Indicate that the original work was shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license. (To redistribute or remix this work in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the license under which the work is shared.)
- The views expressed in this work represent the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of volunteer contributors, or its institutional partners.
- We strongly advise against printing sacred texts and art containing divine names as these copies must be regarded with reverence, complicating their casual treatment and disposal.
- If you must dispose of a printed sacred text (one containing Divine Names), please locate the closest genizah (often established by a synagogue) and contact its custodians for further instructions. We also recommend using Morah Yehudis Fishman's Prayer for Adding a Work to the Genizah.
Leave a Reply