Trump admin threatens Kilmar Abrego Garcia with deportation to Uganda

On Saturday, lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia submitted new court filings, detailing the Trump administration’s plans to potentially deport their client to Uganda. The Maryland man, who was wrongly deported to El Salvador earlier this year, has become a symbol of the administration’s mass deportation efforts. 

From Costa Rica to Uganda

According to reporting from The Associated Press, Abrego Garcia declined an offer to be deported to Costa Rica on Thursday, which would’ve required him to remain in jail and plead guilty to human smuggling charges. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) then told Abrego Garcia’s legal team that he could either accept the agreement or face deportation to Uganda, according to the legal filing. 

He was given until Monday morning to report to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Baltimore. 

The filing comes one day after Abrego Garcia was released from a Tennessee jail, where he had been held on human smuggling charges brought by the Trump administration since his return from El Salvador’s maximum-security CECOT prison. 

Sheetmetal worker or MS-13 human smuggler?

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have been working to get those charges dismissed. They say that the Trump administration has been on a mission to convict their client ever since he challenged his deportation to El Salvador. 

The case made Abrego Garcia something of a martyr for immigration rights advocates. The sheetmetal worker, who has no criminal history in the U.S. save for a few traffic violations, had been living in Maryland on a 2019 order that protected him from deportation.    

DHS maintains that Abrego Garcia is guilty of human smuggling and that he is a member of the MS-13 gang. In a report, DHS says he was pulled over for speeding on Dec. 1, 2022, with eight passengers in his car, sparking human trafficking concerns. The report also flagged him as a suspected MS-13 member, based on information from an unnamed source. 

Judges reviewing the case have expressed skepticism, noting there is no evidence of tattoos, gang markings or verified connections to MS-13.

What are DHS and Abrego Garcia’s lawyers saying now?

Saturday’s court filing is a supplement to another motion to dismiss the human smuggling charges. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers argue that the administration’s response to his release on Friday and its offer of a plea deal signal a coordinated effort on the part of various agencies to force their client’s hand. 

“On Friday evening, the government informed Mr. Abrego that he has until first thing Monday morning — precisely when he must report to ICE’s Baltimore Field Office — to accept a plea in exchange for deportation to Costa Rica, or else that offer will be off the table forever,” Abrego Garcia’s lawyers wrote in the filing. “There can be only one interpretation of these events: the DOJ (Department of Justice), DHS, and ICE are using their collective powers to force Mr. Abrego to choose between a guilty plea followed by relative safety, or rendition to Uganda, where his safety and liberty would be under threat.”

In response to Abrego Garcia’s release on Friday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem took aim at U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis, who has been overseeing the case. Noem described Xinis as a “publicity hungry” judge, responsible for allowing an “MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator [to] be allowed free.”

“By ordering this monster loose on America’s streets, this judge has shown a complete disregard for the safety of the American people,” Noem said. “We will not stop fighting till this Salvadoran man faces justice and is OUT of our country.”

Abrego Garcia’s release from jail

On Friday, Abrego Garcia was released from Tennessee’s Putnam County Jail and placed in the care of his brother in Maryland. His travel was coordinated by his attorneys, and he must check in with ICE officials in Maryland by Monday –– the same day he was told to accept the plea agreement or face deportation to Uganda. 

“The government immediately responded to Mr. Abrego’s release with outrage,” the Saturday filing reads. “Despite having requested and received assurances from the government of Costa Rica that Mr. Abrego would be accepted there, within minutes of his release from pretrial custody, an ICE representative informed Mr. Abrego’s counsel that the government intended to deport Mr. Abrego to Uganda and ordered him to report to ICE’s Baltimore Field Office Monday morning.”

Initially, Abrego Garcia agreed to be placed under electronic monitoring and follow all conditions of his pretrial release. However, the possibility that he could face another deportation attempt was always on the table. 

ICE has said it plans to quickly detain him and start removal proceedings to a third country once he is out of U.S. Marshals’ custody. If he ends up in ICE custody, court documents say he must agree to return to the district for court proceedings and will have full access to his lawyers to prepare for trial.

Last month, a federal judge in Maryland blocked any immediate re-arrest, requiring that he remain under the same supervision conditions he had before his March deportation and mandating at least 72 hours’ notice before ICE can take further action.