Salvadoran man faces deportation to Uganda after US jail release
Kilmar Ábrego García, 30, was released on Friday but his lawyers say US authorities are preparing to deport him to Uganda under a little-known agreement that allows the US to send some migrants to third countries
A Salvadoran man who has spent years fighting deportation in the United States could now be sent to Uganda, a country he has never lived in, following his release from jail in Tennessee.
Kilmar Ábrego García, 30, was released on Friday but his lawyers say US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is preparing to deport him to Uganda under a little-known agreement that allows the US to send some migrants to third countries.
Ábrego first entered the US as a teenager after fleeing gang violence in El Salvador. He settled in Maryland, where he lived with his partner and children while working in construction.
But in 2019, he was detained outside a Home Depot after police received a tip linking him to the MS-13 gang, an allegation he has consistently denied.
He was never charged with a crime, though his asylum application was rejected.
The immigration judge in his case ruled that Ábrego could not safely return to El Salvador but also found that he did not meet the requirements for full asylum.
In 2020, during the Trump administration, he was mistakenly deported in violation of a court order and later detained in a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
US officials admitted the removal was wrongful, and he was eventually returned to the US after a Supreme Court decision.
In 2022, Ábrego was arrested in Tennessee after police found nine passengers in his car. Federal prosecutors accused him of human smuggling, a charge he denied.
He has since been held in detention while the case proceeded. Prosecutors offered him a plea deal that included relocation to Costa Rica, which had agreed to accept him as a refugee, but Ábrego rejected the deal.
His lawyers now say the government is retaliating by moving to deport him to Uganda.
They argue that Ábrego has no ties to the East African country and does not fall under the category of migrants covered by the agreement.
Uganda has confirmed it has a deportation arrangement with the US but has not commented on whether it will accept Ábrego.
“The government is using Uganda as leverage to pressure him into pleading guilty,” said his lawyer, who described the plan as unlawful.
The British High Commission has not commented on the specific case but acknowledged that third-country transfer agreements exist with Uganda and Honduras.
Ábrego is scheduled to appear in Baltimore immigration court on Monday, where a judge will determine whether he faces deportation or is allowed to remain in the US.
For now, his future remains uncertain, as he risks being sent thousands of miles away from both his family and his home country.
