Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an already once wrongfully deported Maryland man, has been detained by United States immigration authorities in Baltimore and now faces another potential and immediate deportation by the President Donald Trump administration, this time to Uganda.
Despite Abrego Garcia’s new detention on Monday, a blanket court order automatically pauses any effort by the Trump administration to immediately deport him and other immigrants who are challenging their detention.
Any immigrant seeking review of their detention in a Maryland federal court is covered by the order, which blocks their removal from the US until 16:00 (20:00 GMT) on the second business day after their habeas corpus petition is filed. In June, the administration sued all of Maryland’s 15 federal judges to challenge the standard order.
Immigration officials in the US say they intend to deport Abrego Garcia to Uganda, according to a court filing Saturday, in what the man’s legal team describes as an act of “vindictiveness” by Trump’s administration.
Uganda, the east African nation where the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to deport him, recently agreed to a deal to accept certain deportees from the US.
The court filing said the idea of sending Abrego Garcia to Uganda came after he declined an offer to be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for remaining in jail and pleading guilty to human smuggling charges.
Abrego Garcia, a 30-year-old Maryland construction worker and Salvadoran national, spoke at a rally before he turned himself in: “This administration has hit us hard, but I want to tell you guys something: God is with us, and God will never leave us,” Abrego Garcia said, speaking through a translator. “God will bring justice to all the injustice we are suffering.”
Abrego Garcia entered the offices of ICE in a downtown office building on Monday. His wife emerged without him a few minutes later with tears in her eyes.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on X that Abrego Garcia was being processed for deportation.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said a lawsuit had been filed in a federal district court in Maryland shortly after his detention, asking for an order that he not be deported. “I expect there’s going to be a status conference very promptly, and we’re going to ask for an interim order that he not be deported, pending his due process rights to contest deportation to any particular country,” he said.
The face of Trump’s hardline immigration policies
Abrego Garcia has an American wife and children and has lived in Maryland for years, under protected legal status since 2019, when a judge ruled he should not be deported because he could be harmed in his home country.
He then became the highest-profile case among more than 200 people sent to the notorious El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison as part of Trump’s crackdown on refugees, migrants and asylum seekers in the US. His case remains a major flashpoint for the Trump administration in its anti-immigration crackdown.
Department of Justice lawyers admitted that the Salvadoran citizen had been wrongly deported due to an “administrative error”.
Abrego Garcia was severely beaten and subjected to psychological torture in the El Salvador prison, his lawyers say.
The alleged abuse was detailed in court documents filed in Abrego Garcia’s civil lawsuit against the Trump administration in June, providing an account of his experiences following his deportation for the first time.
Abrego Garcia – who denies any wrongdoing – now stands accused of involvement in smuggling undocumented refugees and migrants from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and other countries into the US between 2016 and earlier this year.
His trial in his human smuggling case is set to begin in January 2027.
The Trump administration has said it is trying to deport Abrego Garcia months before his trial is scheduled in Tennessee, alleging that the married father is a danger to the community and an MS-13 gang member.
He has denied the gang allegation, pleaded not guilty to smuggling charges and asked a judge to dismiss the case on grounds of vindictive prosecution.
Abrego Garcia was released Friday afternoon from a jail in Tennessee. He returned to his family in Maryland.
In a statement, Justice Department spokesperson Chad Gilmartin said the criminal charges underscore how Abrego Garcia presents a “clear danger” and that he can either plead guilty or stand trial.
Although he was deemed eligible for pretrial release last month, he remained in jail at the request of his lawyers, who feared the Republican administration could try to immediately deport him again if he were freed.
Comments