Kilmar Abrego Garcia has never set foot in Uganda, but President Donald Trump’s administration is currently “processing” his deportation to the East African nation after rearresting him at a mandated check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Abrego Garcia’s renewed detention is the latest escalation by the Trump administration in their campaign against the Maryland father they wrongfully deported to El Salvador earlier this year, before bringing him back to the U.S. to face new charges in Tennessee.
The arrest was expected given that the Department of Homeland Security had openly stated that it would seek to remove Abrego Garcia should he be let out on bail in the Tennessee case.
“Today, [DHS Secretary Kristi Noem] announced that ICE arrested Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He will be processed for removal to Uganda,” the Department of Homeland Security wrote on X. Attorneys for Abrego Garcia have, in turn, filed a motion in Maryland to prevent his imminent deportation to a third-party country he has no connection to. The U.S. State Department warns Americans to reconsider whether to travel to Uganda based on threats of terrorism and violent crime.
Abrego Garcia has never been convicted of any crime. Despite the Trump administration having been ordered by a judge in Tennessee to stop making inflammatory public comments about the case, Secretary Noem today described Abrego Garcia as “an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator” whom Trump would not allow to “terrorize American citizens.”
Abrego Garcia was released from federal custody in Tennessee on Friday and allowed to return home to Maryland, after a judge ruled that the federal government — which has charged Abrego Garcia with unlawfully transporting undocumented migrants based off a 2022 traffic stop — had failed to prove that he was a flight risk or threat to the public in a manner that required pre-trial detention.
Before his release, the Trump administration apparently offered Abrego Garcia a choice between Scylla and Charybdis: Plead guilty to the charges and be allowed to live in Costa Rica following his sentence, or reject the plea, get out of jail, and face deportation to Uganda. By that point, Abrego Garcia — who is married to an American citizen, and has one child and several step children — had been held captive by the state for over 160 days.
“The fact that they’re holding Costa Rica as a carrot, and using Uganda as a stick to try to coerce him to plead guilty to a crime is such clear evidence that they’re weaponizing the immigration system in a matter that is completely unconstitutional. And specifically weaponizing the decision of which country they send him to,” his attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said today.
“The government disappeared Kilmar to a foreign prison in violation of a court order,” he added. “Now, after months of delay and secrecy, they’re bringing him back, not to correct their error but to prosecute him. This shows that they were playing games with the court all along — due process means the chance to defend yourself before you’re punished, not after.”
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