The Trump administration might try to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda in the coming days, according to a notice sent by a Department of Homeland Security official to his lawyers on Friday.
The notice, made public in a court filing in Abrego Garcia’s human smuggling criminal case in Tennessee, came minutes after he was released from criminal custody pending his trial on the federal charges.
“Let this email serve as notice that DHS may remove your client, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, to Uganda no earlier than 72 hours from now (absent weekends),” the notice read in part.
Administration officials have hinted in the past at the possibility that Abrego Garcia, who was unlawfully deported to El Salvador earlier this year before being returned to the US in June to face the charges, may be deported to a third country. But until Friday, it wasn’t clear whether they would let his trial conclude before they initiated any removal proceedings.
Under a ruling issued last month by US District Judge Paula Xinis, who had ordered the administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return from a mega-prison in El Salvador, officials are required to give him and his lawyers a heads up of removal plans at least 72 business hours before they intend to carry out the deportation to a third country.
That requirement is meant to give him time to raise a claim that he may face torture or persecution in the third country identified by the government.
The filing submitted by Abrego Garcia’s lawyers Saturday morning to the federal judge overseeing his criminal case also said that earlier this week, the government tried to cut a deal with him in which he would plead guilty to the two federal charges and, after serving any court-imposed sentence, be deported to Costa Rica.
The Central American country would accept him as a refugee or give him some form of legal status, according to a letter sent from its government to a State Department official at the US embassy in Costa Rica.
That offer was renewed Friday evening, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys said in court papers. They told the judge that their client now has until Monday morning “to accept a plea in exchange for deportation to Costa Rica, or else that offer will be off the table forever.”
The offers, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers argued, are evidence of what they described as the government’s effort to punish Abrego Garcia for challenging his wrongful deportation earlier this year. They told the judge, Waverly Crenshaw, that the developments buttress their request for him to throw the case out on the grounds that Abrego Garcia is the subject of “vindictive and selective prosecution.”
“There can be only one interpretation of these events: the DOJ, 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,” the attorneys wrote.
“It is difficult to imagine a path the government could have taken that would have better emphasized its vindictiveness,” they continued. “This case should be dismissed.”
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