Kilmar Abrego García, a well-known migrant wrongly deported to El Salvador during former President Donald Trump’s mass deportation push, was released from a Tennessee prison on Friday and spent the weekend with his family in Maryland. However, his lawyers said they expect him to be detained again during an ICE check-in today and possibly deported to Uganda as early as Wednesday, unless a court intervenes.
According to a court filing on Saturday, Abrego’s lawyers revealed that the Justice Department offered him a plea deal: he would be deported to Costa Rica if he agreed to remain in prison, plead guilty to federal human trafficking charges—which he denies—and serve a U.S. sentence. Abrego declined the offer, and minutes after his release on a judge’s order, ICE informed his legal team that he may be sent to Uganda.
In their filing, his lawyers accused the government of conducting a “selective and vindictive” prosecution, arguing that the Justice Department and Homeland Security are pressuring Abrego to choose between “a guilty plea followed by relative safety, or rendition to Uganda, where his safety and liberty would be under threat.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended the administration’s stance, saying on Friday, “I will not stop fighting till this Salvadoran man faces justice and is OUT of our country.”
What’s next
According to The Wall Street Journal, there is “little stopping the administration” from sending Abrego to any country willing to accept immigrants expelled from the U.S., other than El Salvador. If Abrego accepts the plea deal, he could face up to 10 years in federal prison before being deported to Costa Rica, NBC News reported.
The final decision on his deportation could come within days.
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