The Salvadoran national recently won pre-trial release as he awaits trial on human smuggling charges.
Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national currently facing federal human smuggling charges, allege U.S. authorities are threatening to deport him to Uganda after he declined an offer to plead guilty to the charges and be deported to Costa Rica instead.
Abrego Garcia was released from a jail in Tennessee on Aug. 22, after a federal court permitted him to rejoin his family in Maryland for up to 48 hours, following the expiration of a stay on an order granting him pre-trial release.
On Aug. 23, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys filed a notice with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, saying federal authorities had presented a plea deal the evening before his release.
“Late Thursday evening, in a last-ditch effort to forestall that release, the government informed Mr. Abrego’s counsel that if Mr. Abrego agreed to extend the stay of his release to Monday, August 25, 2025, and plead guilty to both counts of the Indictment, then the government would promise to deport Mr. Abrego to Costa Rica after serving any sentence imposed by the Court,” Abrego Garcia’s attorneys wrote in their Aug. 23 notice to the court.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys also said that, as he was released on Friday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents informed him that he had to report to ICE’s Baltimore Field Office on Monday, Aug. 25, to face deportation to Uganda.
Later on Friday evening, the government allegedly informed Abrego Garcia that he had until he was due to report to the ICE field office to accept their offer to plead guilty and accept the deportation to Costa Rica, or give up on that plea offer forever.
The defense attorneys said that this series of events could only be interpreted as the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security “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.”
This is a developing story and will be updated with additional details.
By Ryan Morgan
