Kilmar Abrego Garcia Taken Into ICE Custody Amid Deportation Fight

Hadisur Rahman, JadeTimes Staff

H. Rahman is a Jadetimes news reporter covering the USA

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Image Source: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who was wrongly deported earlier this year before being returned to the U.S. to face criminal charges, was detained by immigration officials on Monday, reigniting a contentious legal battle over his fate.

Abrego Garcia was taken into custody after reporting to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Baltimore as scheduled. His attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said ICE officers refused to explain the grounds for his detention or disclose where he was being transferred.

“We asked the ICE officer what the reason for his detention was, [and] the ICE officer didn’t answer,” Sandoval-Moshenberg told reporters. “They wouldn’t even commit to giving us paperwork.”

The 39-year-old was mistakenly deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison, despite a 2019 court order barring his removal there due to threats of persecution. The Trump administration at the time alleged he was a member of the MS-13 gang, claims his family and lawyers have denied.

In June, Abrego Garcia was brought back to the U.S. to face federal charges in Tennessee for allegedly transporting undocumented migrants while living in Maryland. He has pleaded not guilty. Less than 24 hours after his release from criminal custody last Friday, ICE notified his attorneys that he could face deportation not to El Salvador or Costa Rica, but to Uganda.

According to court filings, the government had previously offered Abrego Garcia a plea deal: plead guilty to human smuggling and accept deportation to Costa Rica. When he refused, his attorneys say, officials threatened deportation to a more distant third country.

In July, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ruled that Abrego Garcia should be placed under ICE supervision in Maryland while awaiting trial, living with his wife and children. Xinis also ordered that if the government sought to deport him to a third country, it must give at least 72 hours’ notice.

On Monday, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers filed a habeas petition in the U.S. District Court for Maryland, accusing ICE of violating that order by detaining him without process and attempting to deport him to Uganda.

The lawsuit argues that deporting him to Uganda a country with which he has no ties is a punitive measure for exercising his constitutional rights, including rejecting the plea deal. His attorneys requested the court to:

Block ICE from detaining him more than 200 miles from Baltimore.

Prevent removal to Uganda without first attempting deportation to Costa Rica.

Require the government to grant Abrego Garcia a “reasonable fear” interview before any deportation to a third country.

The legal standoff now shifts to federal court in Maryland, where Abrego Garcia’s attorneys are seeking emergency relief. His case has drawn national attention as an example of the tension between immigration enforcement and due process rights.

For Abrego Garcia, who has already endured a wrongful deportation, the fight now centers on whether he will remain in the U.S. with his family, be deported to Costa Rica or face the possibility of removal to Uganda, thousands of miles from both his homeland and his loved ones.