Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident deported to El Salvador and returned to the U.S., is expected to be taken into immigration custody again Monday, according to his attorney, NPR reported.
Attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg told NPR’s “All Things Considered” that Abrego Garcia, who was released Friday from criminal custody in Tennessee while awaiting federal trial, has been ordered to report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Baltimore.
Abrego Garcia is currently monitored by the U.S. Marshals Service through a GPS ankle bracelet.
“I don’t see any need for ICE to detain him. They’ve got him right now,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said. “But that said, I expect that ICE will take him into detention because, well, pretty much that’s what they do.”
In a Saturday court filing, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys revealed that ICE notified them of plans to deport him to Uganda. The filing said the move followed his rejection of a plea deal under which he would plead guilty to smuggling charges and accept deportation to Costa Rica in exchange for remaining in jail.
The lawyers argued that Uganda was being used as “a means of punishment” and a tactic to pressure their client into a guilty plea.
Sandoval-Moshenberg warned that if Uganda deported Abrego Garcia back to El Salvador — where he was previously sent to — it would be “just as illegal as it would be for them to send him straight to El Salvador for a second time.”
Abrego Garcia, born in El Salvador but living in Maryland, had been sent to one of the country’s notorious prisons before being returned to the U.S.
His case has become emblematic of tensions over ICE’s detention and deportation practices, particularly the use of third-country deportations as leverage.
ICE did not respond to NPR’s request for comment.
After arriving home in Maryland at 3 a.m. Saturday, Abrego Garcia reunited with his family, including his 5-year-old child, who had stayed awake to welcome him.
“He’s really happy to be back with his family, with his friends,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said while cautioning that “it could prove to be a short-lived reprieve.”
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