President Donald Trump argued Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s tattoos prove he is a MS-13 gang member who should not be allowed back into the United States.

On Friday evening, Trump highlighted a photo of Abrego Garcia’s hand that appeared to contain “MS-13” tattooed on his knuckles. MS-13 is a Salvadoran-native gang that the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization.

“This is the hand of the man that the Democrats feel should be brought back to the United States, because he is such ‘a fine and innocent person.’ They said he is not a member of MS-13, even though he’s got MS-13 tattooed onto his knuckles, and two Highly Respected Courts found that he was a member of MS-13, beat up his wife, etc,” the president wrote in a post to Truth Social.

The photo Trump showed included labels claiming to identify what the tattoos, each on one knuckle, represented. “M” was supposedly represented by a marijuana leaf, “S” was represented by a smiley face, “1” was represented by a cross, and “3” was a skull, according to the legend, with the latter two images possibly being to cover up the two numbers.

Post Millennial journalist Andy Ngo also highlighted on Friday a picture from Abrego Garcia’s wife, where the tattoo appeared to be blocked in the image.

“Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, has strategically censored her partner’s left hand in the photo she uploaded on her TikTok to promote her GoFundMe,” Ngo wrote. 

Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, is an illegal immigrant who lived in the U.S. for years before being deported by the Trump administration to a Salvadoran prison in March. The deportation sparked uproar from the Left over fears that Abrego Garcia’s rights to due process have been violated due to a 2019 court order that ruled he could not be deported to El Salvador because he could face “persecution” from disgruntled MS-13 gang members. 

Democrats say there is scant evidence Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 gang member. The Trump administration has pointed to two judges in 2019 who affirmed that there was credible evidence he belonged to the notorious Salvadoran gang. 

Salvadoran Security and Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro has said that tattoos are a key piece of evidence officials use to identify gang members. 

“We learn how to understand, how to give interpretation to each tattoo,” he said during a recent interview with CNN. “We know the importance for them to identify their members by the tattoos. If you are not a member, you are not able to use any tattoo.”

The director of CECOT supermax prison, where Abrego Garcia was held for a period, told the outlet that tattoos had been a key way to identify suspects.

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“In the past, they had to kill someone, kidnap someone, extort someone to be brought to trial. Now, having tattoos for these organizations is a crime,” director of the prison Belarmino García explained.

Abrego Garcia was first apprehended by authorities in 2019 in a Home Depot parking lot while he engaged with known MS-13 gang members. An informant had identified Abrego Garcia as an active MS-13 gang member, a claim that was disputed by Abrego Garcia. A judge ruled that the informant’s information was “proven and reliable,” but Abrego Garcia could not be deported to El Salvador.