Trump team aims to boot Abrego Garcia to Uganda

Immigration officials say they might deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda just days after he was released from a Tennessee jail pending his trial on human smuggling charges.

He originally declined an offer to be sent to Costa Rica in exchange for remaining in jail and pleading guilty to the human smuggling charges. The offer came late Thursday after it was clear he would be released from jail Friday to await trial with his family in Maryland.

The Department of Homeland Security told his attorneys Friday that he should report to immigration authorities on Monday and be prepared to be sent to Uganda.

“Let this email serve as notice that DHS may remove your client, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, to Uganda no earlier than 72 hours from now (absent weekends),” his attorneys were told.

Mr. Abrego Garcia’s case was thrust into the public eye after he was placed on a deportation flight to El Salvador in March. The planes contained Venezuelan and Salvadoran migrants as part of the Trump administration’s initial crackdown on illegal immigrants in the country.

He was ordered deported in 2019 but had been set free because an immigration judge said he faced persecution from a gang if he was sent back to his home country of El Salvador. Despite that, he was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and deported.

A Justice Department lawyer who said his deportation was a mistake was promptly fired.

When faced with questions over booting Mr. Abrego Garcia, the Trump administration doubled down, saying he’s still in the country illegally.

The administration reinvestigated a previous case where Mr. Abrego Garcia was caught transporting what police believed to be migrants in 2022. The Justice Department won an indictment on smuggling charges, then brought Mr. Abrego Garcia back in June and asked that he be jailed in Tennessee, where the case was brought.

Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. ruled he couldn’t be held in pretrial detention because he didn’t meet the danger or flight risk.

If Mr. Abrego Garcia had taken the Costa Rica deal, he would’ve been welcomed to the country as a legal immigrant after serving his sentence on smuggling charges, according to a brief. His attorneys declined to comment on whether the full plea offer had been formally rescinded. Their brief said he had declined only one part of the offer — to stay in jail.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has asked for the case to be dismissed, saying it was brought only to punish him for pushing back against his El Salvador deportation.

“The government immediately responded to Mr. Abrego’s release with outrage,” the court filing says. “Despite having requested and received assurances from the government of Costa Rica that Mr. Abrego would be accepted there, 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 and ordered him to report to ICE’s Baltimore Field Office Monday morning.”

The Department of Homeland Security said it would immediately arrest him and could begin deportation proceedings to send him to another country if he was released, but Judge Paula Xinis, who ruled in March that his deportation was illegal and demanded he be brought back, stepped in.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blamed “unhinged” Judge Xinis for her push for him to be brought back.

“By ordering this monster loose on America’s streets, this judge has shown a complete disregard for the safety of the American people. We will not stop fighting till this Salvadoran man faces justice and is OUT of our country,” Ms. Noem said.