Kilmar Abrego Garcia walks, as he has been launched from the Putnam County Jail in Cookville, Tennessee, U.S., August 22, 2025.
Seth Herald | Reuters
U.S. immigration officers have notified Kilmar Abrego Garcia of their intent to deport him to Uganda, his attorneys stated in a Saturday filing that accuses the federal government of pressuring Abrego Garcia to settle for a plea deal.
The transfer comes after Abrego Garcia, who in March was wrongfully deported to an notorious jail in El Salvador, was released from a jail close to Nashville, Tennessee on Friday. He had been held there since he was returned to the United States in June to face federal human smuggling fees, which he denies.
In the brand new submitting, Abrego Garcia’s legal professionals say that the Trump administration supplied on Thursday to deport him to Costa Rica, after serving any sentence imposed by the courtroom, if he agreed to stay in jail till Monday and plead responsible to each counts within the prison indictment.
Abrego Garcia declined to lengthen his keep. His attorneys write that “within minutes of his release” on Friday, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement consultant knowledgeable them that “the government intended to deport Mr. Abrego to Uganda,” ordering him to report to ICE’s workplace in Baltimore on Monday morning.
His attorneys allege that the Trump administration is successfully forcing Abrego Garcia to select between pleading responsible and being deported to Costa Rica, or being deported to Uganda.
“On Friday evening, the government informed Mr. Abrego that he has until first thing Monday morning—precisely when he must report to ICE’s Baltimore Field Office—to accept a plea in exchange for deportation to Costa Rica, or else that offer will be off the table forever,” his attorneys say.
“There can be only one interpretation of these events: the DOJ, DHS, and ICE are are 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,” Abrego Garcia’s legal professionals write.
His attorneys say within the submitting that the administration’s menace of deportation to Uganda helps their movement to dismiss the smuggling fees on account of vindictive and selective prosecution.
The Department of Homeland Security didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for touch upon the brand new submitting.
Abrego Garcia was detained by ICE on March 12 and deported to the infamous CECOT jail in El Salvador three days later in what the Trump administration has since referred to as an “administrative error.”
A U.S. choose in 2019 barred Abrego Garcia from being deported to El Salvador due to considerations that he can be persecuted there.
Abrego Garcia’s case has develop into a flashpoint of the Trump administration’s strict immigration playbook. The administration has alleged that Abrego Garcia has ties to the infamous MS-13 gang, an accusation that he denies.
A trial on the federal human smuggling fees is scheduled for January.