Alleged MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia was notified by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday afternoon that he will be deported to Eswatini, Africa, a Department of Homeland Security staffer confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Plans for the illegal immigrant’s deportation have been on hold since Aug. 26, when Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered that he remain detained in the U.S. until an evidentiary hearing is held. While the Trump administration had initially planned to deport Abrego Garcia to Uganda, an email, first obtained by Fox News and sent by ICE to his lawyers revealed that the agency agreed to change the location due to Abrego Garcia’s “fear” of “persecution or torture.”
“As you know, the United States seeks to remove you from the United States based on your final order of removal. Currently, you are designated to be removed to Uganda,” the email said. “Your attorney has informed us, however, that you fear persecution or torture in Uganda. That claim of fear is hard to take seriously, especially given that you have claimed (through your attorneys) that you fear persecution or torture in at least 22 different countries.”
The countries Abrego Garcia allegedly feared include El Salvador, Uganda, Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Haiti.
“Nonetheless, we hereby notify you that your new country of removal is Eswatini, Africa,” the email concludes.
After being deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador’s maximum-security prison, Democrats rallied behind the illegal migrant, demanding that the administration bring him back to the U.S.
By June, the alleged gang member was returned to America to face criminal charges related to human smuggling.
Released from a Tennessee prison on Aug. 22, Abrego Garcia was taken again by federal immigration authorities early Aug. 25, with the administration seeking to deport him to Africa or Central America. Xinis, however, temporarily halted the deportation that afternoon, saying federal officials were “absolutely forbidden at this juncture to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia from the continental United States.”
According to Abrego Garcia’s attorneys, the Trump administration offered him the option of either pleading guilty to the human smuggling charges — then being deported to Costa Rica after serving a sentence — or facing deportation to Uganda.
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