GREENBELT, Md. — The Trump administration is pushing again to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was mistakenly sent to El Salvador, even though three African countries they’ve approached have rejected the idea, a judge heard during testimony Friday.
Abrego Garcia is challenging efforts to re-deport him to a third country after the government admitted that a previous order prevents his deportation to his home country of El Salvador. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said recently that it plans to deport him to the southern African country of Eswatini.
The case has come to represent the bitter partisan struggle over the President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration policy and mass deportation agenda.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland said Friday she will decide soon whether Abrego Garcia should remain in custody or be released from immigration detention while his challenge moves forward. This followed a hearing she ordered asking government officials to explain the steps they have taken to remove Abrego Garcia to another country.
An ICE official told the judge during the hearing Friday that the government was continuing to talk with officials in Eswatini about sending him there even though the country rejected the idea this week.
John Schultz, a deputy assistant director who helps oversee removals for ICE, said his understanding is that the administration also was still in discussions with Ghana. However, Ghana’s foreign minister, Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa, posted on social media Friday that the nation will not accept Abrego Garcia.
Uganda also had turned down an offer to take Abrego Garcia, Schultz said.
But he maintained that Abrego Garcia could be removed within 72 hours if the judge allows it and once the administration receives approval from a third country.
“We could quickly operationalize the removal,” Schultz said.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have charged that the Republican administration is trying to illegally use the immigration system to punish him after the embarrassment of his mistaken deportation.
“This game that they’re effectively playing of naming one country after another” shows the government’s real goal is to be improperly punitive, said Andrew Rossman, one of Abrego Garcia’s lawyers.
He told the judge that the government could immediately send Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica — a place he already said he is willing to go — if it was sincere.
“Are you open to that?” the judge asked Justice Department attorney Drew Ensign.
“I’m not aware of any conversations of that nature,” Ensign said.
The judge said it shouldn’t take long for the government to determine if it would agree to send Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica, adding there’s no evidence the country would say no. “This is just not that hard,” Xinis said.
Meanwhile, attorneys in criminal court in Tennessee have made similar claims about retribution in the human smuggling charges brought against Abrego Garcia in June on the day he was returned to the U.S. from El Salvador. The Tennessee judge has concluded that Abrego Garcia’s prosecution may be an illegal retaliation after he successfully sued the Trump administration over his deportation.
The smuggling charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. Abrego Garcia was not charged at the time, and agents did not begin investigating the stop until earlier this year after his wife sued over his deportation.
At a Friday hearing in Nashville, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw said he will hear evidence on the motion to dismiss the charges on Nov. 3.
In addition, defense attorneys said they intend to file a motion asking that statements unrelated to the smuggling charges be removed from the indictment. Attorney Jenna Dabbs cited allegations that her client is a member of the MS-13 gang as an example of the extraneous accusations that are not relevant to the actual charges.
Trump administration officials have waged a relentless public relations campaign against Abrego Garcia, repeatedly referring to him as a member of MS-13, among other things, despite the fact he has not been convicted of any crimes.
Loller reported from Nashville, Tenn.
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