Kilmar Abrego Garcia threatened with deportation to Uganda

BALTIMORE — Kilmar Abrego Garcia could be deported to Uganda early next week, according to court documents— just days after the Maryland resident was released following five months behind bars, including a mistaken expulsion to a mega-prison in his native El Salvador.

Abrego Garcia, 30, was ordered to report to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office in Baltimore on Monday, according to his attorney, Sean Flecker.

“Within minutes of his release from pretrial custody, an ICE representative informed Mr. Abrego’s counsel that the government intended to deport Mr. Abrego to Uganda,” Flecker wrote in a notice of supplemental information filed in federal court Saturday before Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., a judge for Tennessee’s middle district.

A spokesman for ICE did not respond Saturday to a request for comment.

The Abrego Garcia case has been a thorn in the side of the Trump administration since an official testified in March that the father of three had been deported to El Salvador as the result of an “administrative error.” Government officials fought efforts to return Abrego Garcia to the United States, contending that the Prince George’s County resident is a member of the international MS-13 gang.

After the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Trump’s office to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return, he arrived in the United States in June, only to be immediately detained on human smuggling charges.

He was released from prison on Friday on the order of U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara D. Holmes, who ruled that Abrego Garcia must travel directly to Maryland and remain in his brother’s custody.

“Today has been a very special day because I have seen my family for the first time in more than 160 days,” Abrego Garcia said in a statement issued after his release. “I’d like to thank all the people who have supported me because after this long time, I have witnessed that so many people have been by my side with such positivity.”

The government’s threat to deport the apprentice sheet metal worker to Uganda after he had barely regained his freedom was denounced Saturday by the Service Employees International Union.

“Trump’s unrelenting and inhumane hunt to single out an individual and ignoring court decisions is not just unconsitutional but puts all Americans in danger,” Jaime Contreras, the union’s executive vice-president and chair of the Latino caucus, wrote in an emailed statement.

“Deporting Kilmar Garcia halfway around the world is a shameful and shocking picture for the entire world to see that damages our standing in the world even further. The bottom line is that Garcia deserves to be free.”

The longer the case continues to generate headlines, the more it continues to be a problem for the Trump administration, which appears to have been exploring efforts to resolve the matter without having to wait for the months or even years it could take to come to trial.

The court documents filed this week provide glimpses into the behind-the-scenes negotiations between prosecutors and the defense team about Abrego Garcia’s future.

Hecker filed a motion to dismiss the smuggling charges against Abrego Garcia on Tuesday on the grounds that they amount to “vindictive and selective prosecution” against “a man who had the courage to fight back.” On Wednesday, Hecker wrote, it became clear that Abrego Garcia would be released by the end of the week.

The following night, “in a last-ditch effort to forestall that release, the government informed Mr. Abrego’s counsel that if Mr. Abrego agreed to [remain in custody] and plead guilty to both counts of the indictment, then the government would promise to deport Mr. Abrego to Costa Rica after serving any sentence imposed by the court.”

Hecker said that in conjunction with the government’s proposal, officials produced a letter “confirming that [Abrego Garcia] could live freely in that country, which would accept him as a refugee or grant him residency status, and promise not to [deport] him to El Salvador.”

Though Abrego Garcia did not immediately accept the government’s plea offer, Hecker wrote that his legal team “has had little choice but to participate in those discussions, because of the fear that the government would do exactly what it has now expressly proposed to do, and deport him somewhere far more dangerous.”

As of Saturday, the U.S. State Department had issued a Level 2 travel advisory for Costa Rica, which recommends that U.S. citizens “exercise increased caution” when visiting that Central American nation.

In contrast, the travel advisory to Uganda on Saturday was a Level 3, or “reconsider travel due to crime, terrorism, and laws targeting persons on the basis of sexual orientation,” and concludes that “there remains a threat of terrorist attacks in Uganda.”

According to the court documents, Abrego Garcia must decide whether to accept the plea deal by his Monday appointment with immigration officials, “or else that offer will be off the table forever.”

CASA, the Maryland-based Latino and immigrant advocacy organization, is organizing a prayer vigil for 6:30 a.m. Monday at the main entrance to Baltimore’s ICE office, 31 Hopkins Plaza. Attendees are being asked to preregister.

“While this crisis has been unimaginably horrible,” the group wrote in the announcement, Kilmar and his family, through their faith in God, have fought back, and we will continue to fight with them.”