Kilmar Abrego Garcia (Center) and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura (Center Right) enter a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office on Monday in Baltimore, Md. The U.S. government is threatening to deport Garcia, a Maryland construction worker from El Salvador, to Uganda after he rejected a plea deal to be charged with human smuggling and deported to Costa Rica.
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Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man wrongfully deported to El Salvador in March and later returned to the U.S., was taken into federal custody Monday morning by immigration authorities. An attorney for Abrego Garcia confirmed the news to NPR.
The detention, which was expected, happened minutes after Abrego Garcia walked into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Baltimore for a check-in after being released from federal custody on Friday in Tennessee pending a trial on separate criminal charges.
Talking to supporters gathered outside the building, Abrego Garcia said seeing his family over the weekend filled him with hope, and said those moments “will give me strength to continue fighting.”
“God is with us. God will never leave us. God will bring justice to all of the injustice we are suffering,” Abrego Garcia said, fighting through tears.
Abrego Garcia on Monday filed a lawsuit challenging his current detention and any deportation to Uganda or any other country until a trial is held at an immigration court.
In a statement after his detention, Kristi Noem, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said Abrego Garcia is being processed “for removal to Uganda.”
At the core of Abrego Garcia’s case is the question of due process under President Trump’s aggressive crackdown on undocumented immigrants in the U.S. The man was arrested in March and sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to the Central American country because of the “well-founded fear” of gang persecution there. The Trump administration conceded Abrego Garcia’s removal was an “administrative error,” and returned him to the U.S. in June, to face criminal charges.
He was indicted on two charges, including conspiracy to transport undocumented immigrants and unlawful transportation of migrants without legal status.
The Trump administration has said it intends to deport Abrego Garcia to Uganda, despite the latter government indicating last week it prefers to receive people from other African countries and individuals without criminal records.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys said in a court filing that the U.S. government has offered the possibility of deporting him to Costa Rica if Abrego Garcia pled guilty to the criminal charges against him and served the imposed sentence. His attorneys have said that move is “coercive” and “vindictive.”
“Regardless of what happens today with ICE, please promise me that you will keep fighting, praying, believing in the dignity and the liberty for not only me, but for everyone,” Abrego Garcia told supporters.
