Abrego Garcia Arrested as US Plans to Deport Him to Uganda (3)

Embattled Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been taken into custody again by US agents as a top Trump administration official said the government will seek to deport him to Uganda, a country where he has no ties.

Abrego Garcia, who became a key figure in the US crackdown on immigration after being accidentally deported to a notorious prison in his native El Salvador, was first threatened with removal to Uganda last week if he didn’t plead guilty to human-smuggling charges, which he’s refusing to do.

The Maryland resident, who is married to a US citizen, was detained in Baltimore Monday morning by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during a mandatory check-in, his lawyer, Sean Hecker, said in a statement. Abrego Garcia is now willing to be removed to the relative safety of Costa Rica, which has agreed to accept him as a refugee, Hecker said.

“Our client, a man with remarkable courage, reported to ICE this morning, as he was required to do. He was promptly detained,” Hecker said. “The government now seeks to deport Mr. Abrego to Uganda as punishment, notwithstanding that Costa Rica is willing to take him in.”

The arrest was made less than 72 hours after the Tennessee federal judge who is overseeing the criminal case released Abrego Garcia so he could return to his family in Maryland to await trial. Abrego Garcia is seeking dismissal of the charges, arguing they were filed as retaliation after he filed a high-profile legal challenge to his erroneous deportation.

President Donald Trump hailed Abrego Garcia’s arrest during an Oval Office appearance on Monday with US Attorney General Pam Bondi. Trump said “liberal courts” were to blame for earlier rulings in favor of Abrego Garcia, calling him an “animal.”

“We’ve got him under control,” Bondi said during the appearance. “He will no longer terrorize our country. He’s currently charged with human smuggling, including children. The guy needs to be in prison.”

Pam Bondi, US attorney general, from left, US Vice President JD Vance, President Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, US secretary of defense, and Kristi Noem, secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), during an executive order signing on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025.

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

Lawyers for Abrego Garcia on Monday filed a lawsuit challenging his arrest. The suit, in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, seeks an order barring the US from moving him to Uganda until he’s had an opportunity to be heard “on his expressed fears of persecution and torture in that country.”

Abrego Garcia also asked the court to block the US from deporting him to Uganda without first attempting to remove him to Costa Rica. He asked that if the judge does not release him during the case that he be held within 200 miles of the courthouse.

The US Justice Department on Monday told the judge in the criminal case that Abrego Garcia’s lawyers were distorting “good faith” plea negotiations that had been going on for weeks.

‘Processed for Removal’

Abrego Garcia’s challenge to his new arrest was filed with US Judge Paula Xinis, who oversaw his earlier civil suit against the US challenging his earlier deportation to El Salvador.

“He will be processed for removal to Uganda,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a post on X on Monday, citing an earlier announcement Secretary Kristi Noem.

“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,” Noem said in a separate post.

Abrego Garcia has denied being a gang member and argues the US government is attacking his character to justify his accidental deportation to El Salvador in March. After his earlier removal, the US Supreme Court ordered the US to facilitate his return, which the White House initially balked at. He was eventually returned, but only to face charges that he illegally transported undocumented immigrants within the country.

Hecker said in a court filing in Tennessee on Saturday that the government last week sought to prevent his release in the criminal case by making a one-time offer to deport him to Costa Rica if he quickly pleaded guilty and served his sentence. When he declined so he could return to Maryland, ICE said that if he didn’t plead guilty the US would now deport him to Uganda.

Read More: Why Is Trump Deporting Migrants to ‘Third Countries’?

“Kilmar is being made an example of, a martyr for having the courage to stand up to this administration’s illegal deportation practices,” Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, an organizer at the immigrant-rights group CASA, which is representing his family, said in a statement before the arrest. “They’re throwing the entire federal apparatus at one father of three to prove that no one should dare challenge their authority.”

Xinis in July issued an order barring ICE from detaining Abrego Garcia in Tennessee if he were to be released pending trial in the criminal case. Her order didn’t block his arrest in Maryland, but it did order the US to quickly inform Abrego Garcia if the government intended to deport him to a so-called third country where he has no ties, to give him an opportunity to challenge his removal.

(Adds comment by President Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi.)

To contact the reporter on this story:
Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.net

Anthony Aarons

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