An attorney for Kilmar Abrego Garcia said Monday that the Salvadoran national mistakenly deported but returned to the U.S. has been detained after arriving at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility Monday morning in anticipation of new deportation proceedings.
Abrego Garcia was taken into custody by ICE officials, according to Abrego Garcia’s attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg. The authorities now want to deport Abrego Garcia to Uganda, a country with which he has no connection.
“There was no need for them to take him into ICE detention. He was already on electronic monitoring from the U.S. Marshal Service and basically on house arrest. The only reason that they’ve chosen to take him into detention is to punish him,” Sandoval-Moshenberg told a crowd of supporters who gathered outside the facility on Monday.
Sandoval-Moshenberg said an ICE officer did not answer questions about the reason for Abrego Garcia’s detainment. The ICE officer declined to say to which detention center Abrego Garcia would be taken, the attorney said.
Abrego Garcia, who was instructed to report Monday morning to the ICE field office in Baltimore, earlier declined a plea offer that would have allowed him to “live freely” in Costa Rica after serving prison time in exchange for a guilty plea for federal human smuggling charges.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is seeking now to deport Abrego Garcia to Uganda, one of the latest countries with a deal with the Trump administration to accept deportees.
Abrego Garcia addressed the crowd of supporters before entering the facility for his check in, telling them, through a translator, “I want you to remember this: Remember that I am free, and I was able to be reunited with my family.”
“This was a miracle. Thank you to God and thank you to the community power. And this is why I want to thank each and every one of you, who marched, lift your voices, never stopped praying and continue to fight in my name,” he continued.
Abrego Garcia choked up when recalling being in Salvadoran custody and remembering moments with his children, going to the park and playing on the trampoline, saying, “Those moments will continue to give me hope to continue in this fight.”
“To all the families who have been separated or to all the families who have been threatened with family separation, this administration has hit us hard. But I want to tell you guys something: God is with us, and God will never leave us. God will bring justice to all the injustice that we are suffering.”
“Regardless of what happens here today, in my ICE checking, promise me this: Promise me that you will continue to pray, continue to fight, resist and love, not just for me, but for everybody: continue to demand freedom,” he said.
Abrego Garcia was released from a Tennessee jail on Friday and returned home to his family in Maryland.
The release marked the first time Abrego Garcia was outside government custody since March, when he was deported due to an “administrative error” and sent to a notorious megaprison in El Salvador.
Abrego Garcia was brought back to the U.S. to face human trafficking charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop, during which he was pulled over in Tennessee for speeding and was seen transporting men without luggage.
Abrego Garcia has denied wrongdoing and his legal team has sought to dismiss the case, arguing the charges were the result of a vindictive and selective prosecution.
The case has become a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s deportation efforts.
Abrego Garcia initially entered the country illegally but was protected from deportation by a 2019 ruling from an immigration judge that prohibited his return to his native El Salvador.
Abrego Garcia is married to a U.S. citizen, and together they have a child who is a U.S. citizen.
Abrego Garcia filed a federal lawsuit Monday morning challenging his current confinement and his deportation to Uganda or any other country until he has a fair trial in an immigration court as well as his full appeal rights, Sandoval-Moshenberg said at the rally.
This story was updated at 9:26 a.m.
