US intends to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda after judge orders his release News
© WikiMedia (Senator Chris Van Hollen)
US intends to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda after judge orders his release

Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s lawyers notified a US trial judge on Saturday of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) intention to deport Garcia to Uganda. ICE informed the lawyers through email immediately following Garcia’s court-ordered release on Friday, abruptly changing its prior aim to deport Garcia to Costa Rica.

The day before Garcia’s release, President Donald Trump’s administration offered Garcia deportation to Costa Rica after serving any criminal sentence he may receive if Garcia “agreed to extend the stay of his release to Monday, August 25, 2025, and plead guilty to both counts of the Indictment.” Additionally, the administration provided an official letter from the Costa Rican government confirming that Garcia could live freely in the country and would not be sent away to any “third country,” including his home country El Salvador.

After Garcia’s release, ICE also sent his lawyers an email informing them that he has been ordered to report to ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Office in Baltimore on Monday morning.

Garcia initially fled to the US illegally under death threats from the El Salvadorian gang Barrio 18. In March 2019, Garcia requested asylum after being subject to deportation proceedings and secured a “withholding of removal” status eight months later. 

Six years later, Garcia was arrested by ICE officers without a warrant on his way home from work. They sent him on a flight to El Salvador’s Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) three days later. US Judge Paula Xinis ordered his return in April based on his asylum status, and the US Supreme Court upheld the order four days later. The administration failed to convince the court that US courts cannot grant relief once a migrant has been deported from the country. Judge Xinis subsequently ordered the Trump administration to provide daily updates on Garcia’s location and its efforts to retrieve him.

Despite the Supreme Court’s order, Trump and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele asserted they lacked the authority to return Garcia. Judge Xinis subsequently ordered sworn testimony from the Trump administration concerning their adherence to her prior order.

The administration returned Garcia to the US on June 6, though under arrest with human smuggling charges. He pleaded not guilty.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem issued a statement condemning Garcia’s release:

Activist liberal judges have attempted to obstruct our law enforcement every step of the way in removing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from our country. Today, we reached a new low with this publicity hungry Maryland judge mandating this illegal alien who is a MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator be allowed free.

Garcia’s lawyers are using the response of ICE’s deportation agenda to Garcia’s release as support for their motion to dismiss the case based on “vindictive and selective prosecution.”

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