Abrego Garcia taken into ICE custody again
Lawyers working to head off threat of deportation to Uganda
By: John Bacon
Even Mealins
and Eduardo Cuevas
USA Today
..... The Maryland resident whose wrongful deportation fuels protests against the Trump administration was detained by U.S. immigration officials on August 25 [2025] and could be deported again, his lawyer said.
.....
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 30, reported to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore three days after being released from criminal custody in Tennessee and returning to his home in Maryland. He has spent more than five months in detention, including time in his native El Salvador at a mega-prison known for its harsh conditions.
..... Abrego Garcia's case drew attention as the Trump administration for months took no apparent steps to bring him back form El Salvador despite an official's acknowledgment that his deportation had been an "administrative error" and a federal judge's order to facilitate his return.
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Abrego Garcia arrived at the ICE office on August 25 [2025] with his wife and brother and was quickly surrounded by a crowd of supporters chanting "Si, se puede," Spanish for "Yest we can/" He and his wife embraced in the building's lobby before proceeding through a security checkpoint. His lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said his client was detained upon reporting for an interview. U.S. officials have offered to deport him to Costa Rica if he pleaded guilty to transporting migrants living illegally in the United States, his lawyer say.
..... Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers say they have entered plea discussions with the government to try to avoid deportation to Uganda, which they say would be "far more dangerous" than Costa Rica.
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"They're holding Costa Rica as a carrot and using Uganda as a stick," Sandoval-Moshenberg said. "They're weaponizing the immigration system in a way that;s completely unconstitutional."
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Abrego Garcia, in turn, has filed a federal lawsuit in Maryland seeking an order to ban deporting him anywhere unless he has had the chance to contest being sent their, Sandoval-Moshenberg said. Abrego Garcia, a sheet metal worker living in suburban Washington , DC, has become the face of President Donald Trump's sweeping and controversial deportation tactics.
..... Abrego Garcia entered the country illegally around 2012 as a teen. Immigration officials issued a final order of removal in 2019, but they said he could not be released to his home county of El Salvador because of credible fears of persecution by gangs in that country.
..... Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed Abrego Garcia's arrest on August 25 [2025] and said ICE is processing him for deportation to Uganda. She has blamed "activist liberal judges" for blocking "activist liberal judges" for blocking administration efforts to remove people living in the U.S. illegally who were suspected of committing crimes
..... Contributing: Reuters