(AFP) – The US government intends to deport a Salvadoran man at ground zero of President Donald Trump’s war on illegal immigration to Uganda next week, his lawyers said Saturday. In a filing, the lawyers asked courts to dismiss the case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia on grounds that it is a vindictive attempt to punish him for challenging his initial deportation to El Salvador.
The attempt to deport Garcia to far-flung Uganda in East Africa adds a dramatic new twist to a saga that become a test case for Trump’s harsh crackdown on illegal immigration — and, critics say, his trampling of the law. His lawyers’ filing was an addition to an earlier one asking judges to dismiss the case. Word of the new press to deport him came a day after he was freed and allowed to go home to Maryland pending trial on human smuggling charges.
This followed a tortuous saga in which he was mistakenly deported to a notoriously rough prison in El Salvador, then returned to US soil only to be detained again. A judge ordered his release Friday, but the latest news means he might again be expelled, this time to Uganda under a new, harsh Trump administration scheme of sending undocumented migrants to distant, even war-torn countries where they know no one.
Abrego Garcia denies any wrongdoing, while the administration says he is a violent MS-13 gang member who smuggled other immigrants. On Thursday, when it became clear Abrego Garcia would be released the following day, government officials made him a plea offer: remain in custody, plead guilty to human smuggling charges, and be deported to Costa Rica, his lawyers said in the filing. He declined the offer.
“The government immediately responded to Mr. Abrego’s release with outrage,” the filing states. “Despite… assurances from the government of Costa Rica that Mr. Abrego would be accepted there, within minutes of his release from pretrial custody, an (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) representative informed Mr. Abrego’s counsel that the government intended to deport Mr. Abrego to Uganda and ordered him to report to ICE’s Baltimore Field Office Monday morning,” it added.
The case has been a messy tug of war. The government admitted it had mistakenly sent him to El Salvador’s notorious maximum security prison in March. The US Supreme Court later ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia. He was returned in June and then quickly arrested and charged with trafficking undocumented migrants.
On Friday, he was released from prison in Tennessee on a judge’s order. At that point, he had not seen his family in more than 160 days. The case has become emblematic of Trump’s rough crackdown on illegal migration. Right-wing supporters praise the Republican president’s toughness, but legal scholars and human rights advocates have blasted what they say is a haphazard rush to deport people without even a court hearing, in violation of basic US law.
– Frankie TAGGART
© 2024 AFP
