Immigration officials said Saturday they intend to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, to Uganda after he rejected a plea deal that would have kept him jailed in exchange for being relocated to Costa Rica. According to court filings, Abrego Garcia was released from a Tennessee jail on Friday and ordered to report to immigration authorities in Maryland on Monday.
A letter from Costa Rica confirmed that the country would have accepted him as a legal immigrant after serving time for human smuggling charges. His attorneys, however, said he declined the part of the offer requiring him to remain in jail.
Abrego Garcia’s case drew national attention after he was wrongly deported to El Salvador in March despite a court ruling that he faced danger there. He was later returned to the United States but detained again on smuggling charges from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee.
His legal team has argued the case is retaliatory. They cited the government’s threat of deportation to Uganda as further evidence of a “vindictive prosecution.” Federal officials maintain he is deportable because he entered the U.S. illegally and was previously deemed eligible for removal.
Sources
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