Above photo: Kilmar Ábrego García celebrates his son’s third birthday. David Seidenberg/Creative Commons.
Abrego Garcia Received the News On Day Of His Release.
NOTE: Kilmar Abrego Garcia reported to the ICE office in Baltimore this morning for his ordered ‘check in’ and he was taken into custody again. Garcia’s lawyer is challenging his deportation.
On the same day he was released from federal custody, the Trump administration on Friday informed Kilmar Ábrego García—a Maryland man wrongfully deported to a notorious Salvadoran prison rife with abuse—that it may deport him to the East African nation of Uganda.
Ábrego García, a Salvadoran national who entered the US without authorization when he was a teenager, was released Friday from a jail near Nashville, Tennessee, where he had been held since June following his errant deportation to El Salvador and imprisonment in the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) super-maximum security prison.
According to a notice sent by a US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official to Ábrego García’s attorneys on Friday, “DHS may remove your client… to Uganda no earlier than 72 hours from now.”
BREAKING: Per DHS & ICE sources, this afternoon, DHS notified Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s counsel via email that ICE may deport Abrego Garcia to Uganda “no earlier than 72 hours from now”, & ICE is also ordering him to report to ICE’s Baltimore office on Monday. Notifications below 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/CLQSm78JfX
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) August 22, 2025
US District Judge Paula Xinis last month issued a ruling barring the Trump administration from immediately arresting Ábrego García upon his release and requiring the government to provide three business days’ notice if US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intended to initiate deportation proceedings against him.
ICE directed Ábrego García to report to the agency’s Baltimore field office on Monday morning.
The Associated Press reported Saturday that the Trump administration decide to pursue deportation of Ábrego García to Uganda after he declined an offer to be sent to Costa Rica if he pleaded guilty to human smuggling charges related to his alleged transportation of undocumented immigrants in Tennessee in 2022.
Uganda is one of four African nations—the others are Eswatini, Rwanda, and South Sudan—that have agreed to take third-country nationals deported from the US.
Noting that Ábrego García “has no connections to Uganda,” Washington Monthly contributor David Atkins accused the Trump administration of “just spiteful evil for the sake of it.”
The White House says they want Mr. Abrego Garcia to “face justice.” But ICE says they ‘re going to send him to Uganda! That would mean he would never be prosecuted or have his day in court.
That’s what this has ALWAYS been about. A day in court. Due process. What he was denied! https://t.co/VaYc6TvIkq pic.twitter.com/WInzSq9BZa
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) August 23, 2025
Ábrego García was deported to CECOT in March after the Trump administration claimed without credible evidence that he was a gang member. He was one of more than 200 people deported to CECOT without due process. The father of three said he was subjected to beatings and “psychological torture” at the prison.
Although acknowledging wrongfully deporting Ábrego García, the Trump administration argued in court that it lacked jurisdiction to order his return to the United States. However, Xinis—who called Ábrego García’s deportation “wholly lawless”—on April 4 ordered the administration to facilitate his stateside return.
As the administration balked, the US Supreme Court intervened, affirming Xinis’ order in an April 10 ruling. Ábrego García was finally returned to the US in June, only to be arrested for alleged human smuggling. He pleaded not guilty and asked the court to dismiss the charges against him, contending they are retaliation for challenging his deportation to El Salvador.
In a court filing, Ábrego García’s lawyers said their client is being subjected to “vindictive and selective prosecution” by the Trump administration.
“There can be only one interpretation of these events: the [Department of Justice], DHS, and ICE are using their collective powers to force Mr. Ábrego to choose between a guilty plea followed by relative safety, or rendition to Uganda, where his safety and liberty would be under threat,” the attorneys wrote.
“It is difficult to imagine a path the government could have taken that would have better emphasized its vindictiveness,” they added. “This case should be dismissed.”
