Trump administration threatens to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda within days after he’s released from detention
The Trump administration has threatened to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda within days after being released from federal custody in Tennessee on Friday.
The Maryland father was allowed to return home, more than four months after he was wrongfully deported to a brutal Salvadoran prison, only to be returned to the United States to be imprisoned on federal smuggling charges.
“For the first time since March, our client Kilmar Abrego Garcia is reunited with his loving family,” his attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg told The Independent.
“While his release brings some relief, we all know that he is far from safe,” he added. “ICE detention or deportation to an unknown third country still threaten to tear his family apart. A measure of justice has been done, but the government must stop pursuing actions that would once again separate this family.”
Abrego Garcia’s high-profile immigration case has been at the center of Donald Trump’s anti-immigration agenda, and the administration has vowed to initiate new deportation proceedings against him upon his release.
Bill Melugin, a national correspondent for Fox News, reported on an email sent late Friday afternoon from Homeland Security notifying Abrego Garcia’s counsel that Immigration and Customs Enforcement may deport the Salvadoran immigrant to Uganda “no earlier than 72 hours from now (absent weekends).”
That would require the Justice Department to drop the charges against the immigrant father.
Uganda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Thursday the African nation agreed to a temporary deal to accept people “who may not be granted asylum in the United States but are reluctant to or may have concerns about returning to their countries of origin.”
However, the deal excludes those with criminal records and unaccompanied minors.
Melugin also obtained an ICE document dated Friday showing Abrego Garcia being ordered to come to their Baltimore field office on Monday for an “interview.”
Last month, the federal judge overseeing a criminal case against Abrego Garcia ordered his release from jail before trial, finding that prosecutors failed to show “any evidence” that his history or arguments against him warrant his ongoing detention.
Another federal judge overseeing his wrongful deportation case blocked the Trump administration from immediately arresting and deporting him after his release.
The Independent has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
Earlier this week, a senior DHS official told The Independent the Salvadoran immigrant “won’t be on American streets again.”
