Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the immigrant who was wrongfully expelled to El Salvador in March and then brought back to face criminal charges, was detained again Monday after the administration indicated that it planned to redeport him to Uganda, his lawyer said.
The move, at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) office in Baltimore, came only three days after he was freed from custody in the criminal case that was filed against him in US district court, Nashville, Tennessee.
Over the weekend, his lawyers accused the Trump administration of seeking to “coerce” a guilty plea from him on the charges of human smuggling that were brought against him in an indictment in June.
The lawyers said the administration had promised to send him to Costa Rica, where he could live freely as a legal resident, if he pleaded to the charges and agreed to serve whatever prison sentence he eventually received. Otherwise, the lawyers said, Trump officials said they would deport Abrego Garcia “halfway across the world” to Uganda, where, the lawyers said, “his safety and liberty would be under threat.”
The arrest in Baltimore was only the latest twist in a long-running saga that began this spring when the Trump administration removed Mr Abrego Garcia to a notorious terrorism prison in El Salvador, despite a court order that expressly barred him from being sent to the country. Then, after weeks of complaining that they were powerless to bring him back to US soil, Trump officials did precisely that – not merely to correct their own mistake, but to file criminal charges against him.
[ Kilmar Abrego Garcia: The story of the ‘mistakenly deported Maryland man’Opens in new window ]
As he arrived for his immigration check-in in Baltimore on Monday, Mr Abrego Garcia was greeted by the cheers of dozens of supporters at the federal building in Baltimore. His wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, and his brother Cesar were by his side. Speaking in front of the crowd, he thanked the people who had stood with him and delivered an emotional plea to immigrants and the immigrant rights community to keep up the fight and not lose hope.
“Brothers and sisters, my name is Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” he said. “And I always want you to remember that today, I can say with pride, that I am free and have been reunited with my family.”
Mr Abrego Garcia spoke about how the memories of his family and children had sustained him while he was detained at the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, or Cecot.
He said those moments would continue to fuel him as he continued his legal battles and reminded the audience that his case was not about one immigrant family but the many targeted under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
“To all of the families who have also suffered separations or who live under the constant threat of being separated, I want to tell you that even though this injustice is hurting us hard, we must not lose hope,” he said.
This article originally appeared in the New York Times.
