Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who has been at the center of the debate over illegal immigration, surrendered to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday and faces a renewed threat of immediate deportation to Uganda by the Trump administration.
Before turning himself in at the Baltimore ICE office, the 30-year-old Salvadoran national addressed supporters at a rally.
“This administration has hit us hard, but I want to tell you guys something: God is with us, and God will never leave us,” Mr. Abrego Garcia said through a translator. “God will bring justice to all the injustice we are suffering.”
Mr. Abrego Garcia’s case has drawn national attention since he was deported to a crowded prison in his native El Salvador in March, despite a judge’s ruling that he had a “well-founded fear” of violence there. After a court order, the administration returned him to the United States in June, only to detain him on what his lawyers describe as “preposterous and vindictive” human smuggling charges.
The administration sought to deport him months before his scheduled trial in Tennessee, alleging he is a danger to the community and a member of the MS-13 gang — an allegation he denies.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed in a tweet that Mr. Abrego Garcia was being processed for deportation. In response, his attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking an emergency order to block his removal.
“I expect there’s going to be a status conference very promptly, and we’re going to ask for an interim order that he not be deported, pending his due process rights to contest deportation to any particular country,” Mr. Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
After being released from a Tennessee jail on Friday, Mr. Abrego Garcia briefly reunited with his family in Maryland. But that same day, his lawyers received a 72-hour notice from ICE stating their intent to deport him to Uganda, a country that recently agreed to accept certain deportees from America.
The notice came after Mr. Abrego Garcia declined a plea deal that would have sent him to Costa Rica in exchange for admitting guilt to the smuggling charges.
In the emergency court filing on Saturday, his lawyers claimed “there can be only one interpretation of these events: the DOJ, DHS, and ICE are using their collective powers to force Mr. Abrego to choose between a guilty plea followed by relative safety, or rendition to Uganda, where his safety and liberty would be under threat.”
The smuggling charges stem from a 2022 speeding stop in Tennessee. Mr. Abrego Garcia was driving with nine passengers and, despite officers’ suspicions that the passengers were illegal immigrants, was let go with only a warning. He has since pleaded not guilty and requested the case be dismissed on grounds of vindictive prosecution.
The White House on Friday reiterated its claims that Mr. Abrego Garcia is a violent gang member.
“He will face justice for his crimes. It’s an insult to his victims that this left-wing magistrate intervened to put him back on the streets,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in reference to his release from the Tennessee jail.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
