Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant whose removal from the U.S. has faced numerous legal challenges, could soon be deported to Uganda.
Garcia, accused of being an El Salvadoran MS-13 gang member, lived in Maryland for years with his wife before being deported by the Trump administration earlier this year. Garcia’s deportation has been challenged on multiple technicalities, including a court provision barring him from being sent to his home country of El Salvador due to concerns that he could be attacked by former criminal gang colleagues.
Although U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes freed Garcia from a U.S. jail on Friday, a Department of Homeland Security official said on Saturday he could be deported to Uganda “in no fewer than 72 hours, absent weekends.” The revelations come hours after Uganda said it would accept deported U.S. illegal immigrants who aren’t from the country, setting itself up as a safe third country for deportees concerned about their safety if sent to their home countries.
Garcia has been instructed to report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore on Monday.
The latest twist in the case confirms the Trump administration has decided to move ahead with swiftly deporting Garcia a second time instead of keeping him in the U.S. to undergo trial on human smuggling charges.
Holmes had authorized Garcia’s release over the weekend as he awaits trial proceedings set to begin in Nashville.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem criticized Holmes’s move in a statement Friday arguing that Garcia is a MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator.”
“By ordering this monster loose on America’s streets, this judge has shown a complete disregard for the safety of the American people,” she said. “We will not stop fighting till this Salvadoran man faces justice and is OUT of our country.”
Garcia’s case has sparked national attention due to the divergence of views on his case.
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Supporters have painted him as a family man and Maryland resident torn from relatives in the U.S. and illegally thrown by the Trump administration into a notorious El Salvadoran prison complex.
Critics have argued he has resided in the U.S. illegally and pointed to court findings suggesting he is a member of the infamous MS-13 gang, distributed drugs, and abused his wife, with the DOJ prosecuting him on human smuggling charges.
