Embattled Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been taken into custody again by US immigration agents as a top Trump administration official said the government will seek to deport him to Uganda, a country where he has no ties.
Abrego Garcia, who became a key figure in the US crackdown on immigration after being accidentally deported to a notorious mega prison in his native El Salvador, was first threatened with removal to Uganda last week if he didn’t plead guilty to human-smuggling charges, which he’s refusing to do.
The Maryland resident, who is married to a US citizen, was detained in Baltimore Monday morning by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during a mandatory check-in, his lawyer, Sean Hecker, said in a statement. Abrego Garcia is now willing to be removed to the relative safety of Costa Rica, which has agreed to accept him as a refugee, Hecker said.
“Our client, a man with remarkable courage, reported to ICE this morning, as he was required to do. He was promptly detained,” Hecker said. “The government now seeks to deport Mr. Abrego to Uganda as punishment, notwithstanding that Costa Rica is willing to take him in.”
The arrest was made less than 72 hours after the Tennessee federal judge who is overseeing the criminal case released Abrego Garcia so he could return to his family in Maryland to await trial. Abrego Garcia is seeking dismissal of the charges, arguing they were filed as retaliation after he filed a high-profile legal challenge to his erroneous deportation.
Hecker said in a court filing in Tennessee on Saturday that the government last week sought to prevent his release in the criminal case by making a one-time offer to deport him to the relative safety of Costa Rica if he quickly pleaded guilty and served his sentence. When he didn’t accept the offer and returned to Maryland, ICE said that if he didn’t plead guilty the US would now deport him to Uganda.
Abrego Garcia’s challenge to his new arrest was filed with US Judge Paula Xinis, who oversaw his earlier civil suit against the US challenging his earlier deportation to El Salvador.
“He will be processed for removal to Uganda,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a post on X on Monday, citing an earlier announcement Secretary Kristi Noem.
“President Trump is not going to allow this illegal alien, who is an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator to terrorize American citizens any longer,” Noem said in a separate post.
Abrego Garcia has denied being a gang member and argues the US government is attacking his character to justify his accidental deportation to El Salvador in March. After his earlier removal, the US Supreme Court ordered the US to facilitate his return, which the White House initially balked at. He was eventually returned, but only to face charges that he illegally transported undocumented immigrants within the country.
“Kilmar is being made an example of, a martyr for having the courage to stand up to this administration’s illegal deportation practices,” Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, an organizer at the immigrant-rights group CASA, which is representing his family, said in a statement before the arrest. “They’re throwing the entire federal apparatus at one father of three to prove that no one should dare challenge their authority.”
Xinis in July issued an order barring ICE from detaining Abrego Garcia in Tennessee if he were to be released pending trial in the criminal case. Her order didn’t block his arrest in Maryland, but it did order the US to quickly inform Abrego Garcia if the government intended to deport him to a so-called third country where he has no ties, to give him an opportunity to challenge his removal.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
