Kilmar Abrego, the migrant whose previous wrongful deportation to El Salvador highlighted the strictness of U.S. immigration policies under former President Donald Trump, was detained again by U.S. immigration authorities in Baltimore on Monday.
His lawyer said Kilmar Abrego now faces the possibility of deportation, this time to Uganda, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
Abrego, 30, was released from criminal custody in Tennessee on Friday and returned to a family home in Maryland after more than five months of detention, including time in a mega-prison in his native El Salvador known for its harsh conditions.
But he was detained again by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday upon reporting for an interview at 8 a.m. EDT, his lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg told reporters and Abrego's supporters outside the ICE field office in downtown Baltimore.
Abrego also filed a lawsuit in federal court in Maryland seeking an order for him not to be deported anywhere unless he has had the chance to contest being sent there, Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
Abrego's wife and brother, who accompanied him to the interview, left the ICE field office without him, Reuters video showed.
U.S. officials have offered to deport him to Costa Rica - like El Salvador, a Spanish-speaking country in Central America - if he pleads guilty to charges of transporting migrants living illegally in the U.S., according to his lawyers. Without a guilty plea, he could be removed to Uganda, an East African country that is "far more dangerous," his lawyers said in court documents filed on Saturday.
Abrego has pleaded not guilty, but his lawyers acknowledged they have entered plea discussions with the government to possibly avoid deportation to Uganda. Abrego is willing to accept refugee status in Costa Rica, Sandoval-Moshenberg told reporters.
"They're holding Costa Rica as a carrot and using Uganda as a stick," Sandoval-Moshenberg said. "They're weaponizing the immigration system in a way that's completely unconstitutional."
