The Trump administration may try to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda following his release from criminal custody, according to a senior Department of Homeland Security official and a notice sent by government officials obtained by CBS News.
Hours after Abrego Garcia — who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador earlier this year — was released from pre-trial detention in Tennessee on Friday, his attorneys were sent a court-required notice of his potential deportation to Uganda, the official said.
The notice said he may be deported to the East African country “no earlier than 72 hours from now,” not including weekends.
Earlier in the week, CBS News was first to report that Uganda had agreed to a U.S. request to accept deportees who are not its citizens, becoming the latest “third country” to strike a deportation agreement with the second Trump administration.
A native of El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was held in a notorious Salvadoran prison for months, before being returned to the U.S. and jailed while awaiting trial on federal human smuggling charges. A judge ruled that he should be released from detention ahead of a trial set for January.
In a legal filing Saturday, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers revealed that the Trump administration had offered their client a “last-ditch” plea deal that would see him sent to Costa Rica after the completion of his criminal sentence. They submitted in federal court a letter from a Costa Rican government official that said the Central American country had agreed to accept Abrego Garcia as a refugee and provide him legal status there.
But after Abrego Garcia declined that deal and was released from pre-trial detention, his lawyers confirmed they were notified by the Trump administration that he could face deportation to Uganda instead. Abrego Garcia was also directed to show up to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore on Monday morning. His lawyers said he has been told he has until then to accept the Costa Rica deal, or it will no longer be on the table.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said the Uganda deportation threat bolsters their argument that the Trump administration’s prosecution of their client is vindictive.
“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,” they wrote in the filing Saturday.
The Trump administration has indicated for months that if Abrego Garcia is let out of jail, ICE could detain him and seek his removal from the U.S. yet again.
In 2019, an immigration judge ruled that Abrego Garcia cannot be deported to El Salvador because he feared persecution by local gangs in the Central American country. The Trump administration said he was deported there anyway due to an “administrative error.”
Still, the government could legally seek Abrego Garcia’s deportation to Uganda or another “third country” other than El Salvador — a practice the Trump administration has increasingly used for undocumented immigrants in recent months.
Abrego Garcia plans to return to Maryland, where he lived with his family prior to his March deportation. Maryland-based U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ruled last month that the government must give him 72 hours’ notice if it plans to initiate deportation proceedings. But she didn’t prohibit the government from seeking his removal, writing that immigration agents “may take whatever action is available to them under the law.”
CBS News has reached out to DHS and Abrego Garcia’s attorneys for comment.
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