NASHVILLE (AP) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who has become the face of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, is in a Virginia detention center facing deportation to the east African country of Uganda.
The Maryland construction worker, 30, was detained Monday in Baltimore by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement after leaving a Tennessee jail on Friday. Administration officials have said he's part of the dangerous MS-13 gang, an allegation Abrego Garcia denies.
The Salvadoran national's lawyers are fighting the deportation efforts in court, arguing he has the right to express fear of persecution and torture in Uganda. Abrego Garcia has also told immigration authorities he would prefer to be sent to Costa Rica if he must be removed from the U.S.
It’s the latest twist in a long and complicated legal saga under the administration’s hardline deportation policies.
As his deportation proceedings and a related lawsuit move forward, here’s what to know:
Why does the government want to deport him?
Abrego Garcia entered the U.S. without documentation when he was 16. He settled in Maryland, worked construction, married and started a family.
A U.S. immigration judge deemed him eligible for deportation in 2019, but not to his native El Salvador where he faces credible threats of violence from local gangs.
The Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia to El Salvador in March, in violation of the 2019 order. His American wife successfully sued to bring him back in June, and on his return he was charged with human trafficking in Tennessee — charges his lawyers have called preposterous and vindictive.
The Trump administration is trying to deport him again — before his trial — saying he’s a danger to the community. Confidential plea negotiations in his criminal case have become an opportunity for mudslinging on both sides.
Lawyers: Uganda is punishment
After the Trump administration was forced to bring Abrego Garcia back in June, ICE officials vowed to deport him to a unnamed third country. Within minutes of his release from criminal custody in Tennessee on Friday, ICE said he would be deported to Uganda.
Abrego Garcia notified the U.S. government Saturday that he fears deportation to Uganda, where he believes he could be tortured. He said he also worries that Uganda will send him to El Salvador, where he said he's been tortured before.
In a separate notice, he said he would prefer to be deported to Costa Rica.
The notices were included in the lawsuit filed Monday. It says the U.S. is punishing Abrego Garcia for successfully fighting his deportation to El Salvador, refusing to plead guilty to the smuggling charges and for seeking release from jail in Tennessee.
Meanwhile, opposition figures and others in Uganda have criticized the agreement with the U.S. to receive deported migrants, questioning the lack of parliamentary approval and saying the deal eases political pressure on the country’s authoritarian president.
Without parliamentary oversight, “the whole scheme stinks,” said Mathias Mpuuga, until recently the leader of the opposition in Uganda’s national assembly.
He said Uganda is already struggling to look after refugees fleeing violence in neighboring countries. It's unclear what Ugandan authorities are getting in return for accepting deportees.
Costa Rica and plea negotiations
The idea to deport Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica was borne of weekslong negotiations between prosecutors and defense attorneys in his human smuggling case.
Abrego Garcia is accused of taking money to transport people who were in the country illegally. He has pleaded not guilty and asked the judge to dismiss the case, saying it was filed to punish him for challenging his deportation. Trial is set for January.
The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding in Tennessee. There were nine passengers in the SUV and Abrego Garcia had $1,400 in cash on him. While officers discussed among themselves their suspicions of smuggling, he was allowed to drive away with only a warning.
A Homeland Security agent testified that he didn’t begin investigating until this April, when the government was facing mounting pressure to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys began confidential discussions about a possible plea agreement in mid-July, according to court filings. Abrego Garcia was only interested in a deal in which “he is deported to a Spanish-speaking third country in North or Central America — like Mexico — where he can live freely and safely” after serving his sentence in the U.S.
Working with the State Department, the U.S. Attorney’s Office was able to secure a pledge from Costa Rica that Abrego Garcia would be welcomed there as a legal immigrant and not detained or re-deported to El Salvador. Prosecutors believed the two sides were very close to an agreement last week.
But within minutes of Abrego Garcia leaving jail on Friday, ICE informed his attorneys that it intended to deport him to Uganda.
Abrego Garcia’s defense attorneys publicized details of the plea negotiations in a Saturday court filing. They said the threat of deportation to Uganda was more proof of the vindictive nature of the criminal case and more reason to dismiss it.
Prosecutors shot back on Monday, defending their handling of the plea discussions and accusing defense attorneys of “twisting the Government’s good-faith efforts into something sinister.”
Reasonable fear interview
In his lawsuit, Abrego Garcia's lawyers asked the court to ensure that he can exercise his constitutional rights, including immigration court proceedings and appeals.
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, Abrego Garcia’s lead immigration attorney, told reporters Monday that he is entitled to a reasonable fear interview, when he can express fears of persecution or torture in Uganda.
If officials determine Abrego Garcia lacks reasonable fear, he should be allowed to ask a U.S. immigration judge to review that decision, his lawyer said. And if the immigration judge upholds the determination, Abrego Garcia should be able to bring it to the U.S. Court of Appeals.
The Trump administration could just send Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica, which already said it would accept him, the lawsuit said. But the administration chose Uganda “to punish him.”
___
Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia.
Ben Finley And Travis Loller, The Associated Press
