Alleged MS-13 gangbanger Kilmar Abrego Garcia was again detained by ICE Monday — as he faces the possibility of now being deported to Uganda.
“Today, ICE law enforcement arrested Kilmar Abrego Garcia and are processing him for deportation,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.
“President Trump is not going to allow this illegal alien, who is an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator to terrorize American citizens any longer.”
The 30-year-old had reported to the ICE Field Office in Baltimore just after 7:30 a.m. after being released from a Tennessee jail last week as he awaits trial on human smuggling charges.
Abrego Garcia, who was brought back to the US in June after being deported to his native El Salvador earlier this year, had rejected an offer last week to plead guilty to the charges.
US officials offered to send him to Costa Rica if he copped to transporting migrants living illegally in the US – or risk being sent to Uganda, his lawyers argued in court documents.
“They’re holding Costa Rica as a carrot and using Uganda as a stick,” his lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said outside the ICE field office in downtown Baltimore.
“They’re weaponizing the immigration system in a way that’s completely unconstitutional.”
Abrego Garcia was detained by immigration authorities shortly after reporting for a scheduled interview.
He has since 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, his lawyer said.
“I expect there’s going to be a status conference very promptly, and we’re going to ask for an interim order that he not be deported, pending his due process rights to contest deportation to any particular country,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
The smuggling allegations stem from a 2022 traffic stop during which the construction worker was pulled over on a Tennessee highway with eight passengers in the car, but no luggage.
Local cops had suspected human smuggling but he was not charged at the time.
He was also previously accused of physically abusing his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, a US citizen who has been fiercely advocating on his behalf.
The Trump administration has said it is trying to deport Abrego Garcia months before his trial is scheduled in Tennessee, alleging that the married father is a danger to the community and an MS-13 gang member.
He has denied belonging to the notorious gang.
His lawyers have previously called the smuggling charges preposterous and vindictive.
With Post wires
