Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the immigrant who was wrongfully expelled to El Salvador in March and then brought back to face criminal charges, was detained again on Monday after the administration indicated that it planned to re-deport him to Uganda, his lawyer said.
The detention unfolded after Mr. Abrego Garcia arrived at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore and came only three days after he was freed from custody in the criminal case that was filed against him in Federal District Court in Nashville.
Outside the office, a lawyer for Mr. Abrego Garcia, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said that the stated intention of the meeting with ICE was for an interview. “Clearly, that was false,” he said, adding that the immigration authorities did not say why Mr. Abrego Garcia was being detained or even where he would be taken.
The crowd of supporters descended into chants of “boos” and “shame” to the news, and immigrant rights volunteers in yellow vests shielded Mr. Abrego Garcia’s family members as they left the building.
Shortly after, Mr. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers filed a legal action known as a habeas petition in Federal District Court in Maryland seeking to stop his removal to Uganda. The petition claimed that the Trump administration had re-arrested him without first giving him the opportunity to express “fears of persecution and torture in that country.”
Mr. Abrego Garcia should have a grace period of two business days from being deported again under a standing order issued in May by the chief federal judge in Maryland. The order automatically stopped the government from following through on expulsions of immigrants for 48 hours after they filed habeas petitions.
Over the weekend, his lawyers had accused the Trump administration of seeking to “coerce” a guilty plea from him on the charges of human smuggling that were brought against him in an indictment in June.
The lawyers said the administration had promised to send Mr. Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica, where he could live freely as a legal resident, if he pleaded to the charges and agreed to serve whatever prison sentence he eventually received. Otherwise, the lawyers said, Trump officials said they would deport Mr. Abrego Garcia “halfway across the world” to Uganda, where, the lawyers said, “his safety and liberty would be under threat.”
“The government now seeks to deport Mr. Abrego to Uganda as punishment, notwithstanding that Costa Rica is willing to take him in as a refugee,” one of the lawyers, Sean Hecker, said after the detention. “The government’s campaign of retribution continues because Mr. Abrego refuses to be coerced into pleading guilty to a case that should never have been brought.”
The arrest in Baltimore was the latest twist in a long-running saga that began this spring, when the Trump administration removed Mr. Abrego Garcia to a notorious terrorism prison in El Salvador, despite a court order that expressly barred him from being sent to the country. Then, after weeks of complaining that they were powerless to bring him back to U.S. soil, Trump officials did exactly that — not merely to correct their own mistake but to file criminal charges against him.
As he arrived for his immigration check-in, Mr. Abrego Garcia was greeted by the cheers of dozens of supporters. His wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, and his brother, Cesar, were by his side. Speaking to the crowd, he thanked the people who had stood with him and delivered an emotional plea to immigrants and the immigrant rights community to keep up the fight and not lose hope.
“Brothers and sisters, my name is Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” he said. “And I always want you to remember that today, I can say with pride, that I am free and have been reunited with my family.”
Mr. Abrego Garcia, dressed in jeans, sneakers and a black, gray and white polo, appeared nervous when he first arrived. His eyes shifted from reporters to rally goers, and he took a deep breath. His voice broke as he spoke about how the memories of his family and playing with his children on a trampoline had sustained him while he was detained at the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.
But he held back his tears and finished his statement with resolve. He said those moments would continue to fuel him as he continued his legal battles and reminded the audience that his case was not about one immigrant family but the many targeted under the Trump administration’s crackdown.
“To all of the families who have also suffered separations or who live under the constant threat of being separated,” he said, “I want to tell you that even though this injustice is hurting us hard, we must not lose hope.”
He continued: “God is with us, and God will never leave us. God will bring justice to all of the injustice.”
As he climbed the steps to the federal building, with immigration agents around, the scene turned chaotic. Mr. Abrego Garcia bowed his head as he slowly walked into the building. The crowd chanted “ICE go home” and “Si se puede,” or “yes you can” in Spanish.