Kilmar Abrego Garcia, born in El Salvador and living in Maryland, was wrongfully deported previously and has since returned to the U.S. He was released from criminal custody in Tennessee while awaiting a federal trial and instructed to report to an ICE detention center in Baltimore. The U.S. Marshals Service is monitoring him electronically via a GPS ankle bracelet. Immigration officials notified his attorneys that they plan to deport him to Uganda after he rejected a plea deal to be deported to Costa Rica. His attorneys contend the Uganda plan is intended to coerce a guilty plea and fear a return to El Salvador.
Abrego Garcia, who was released from criminal custody in Tennessee on Friday while he awaits federal trial, has been told to report to an ICE detention center in Baltimore on Monday, attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said during an interview with All Things Considered that aired on Sunday. "I don't see any need for ICE to detain him. They've got him right now," Sandoval-Moshenberg said, saying that Abrego Garcia is being monitored electronically by the U.S. Marshals Service through a GPS ankle bracelet.
After Abrego Garcia was released Friday, immigration officials notified his attorneys that they plan to deport him to Uganda after he rejected a plea deal to be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for pleading guilty to smuggling charges and remaining in jail, Abrego Garcia's lawyers said in a court filing on Saturday. His attorneys also believe the move is designed to push Abrego Garcia into a guilty plea, with Uganda being used as "a means of punishment."
Sandoval-Moshenberg said no assurances have been given about Uganda, and while they are concerned about what his living conditions would be in the country, they are also concerned it is a way to ultimately send Abrego Garcia back to El Salvador. "If Uganda is going to deport him right back to El Salvador, whether, you know, the next day, the next month, or even in a few months, that's just as illegal as it would be for them to send him straight to El Salvador for a second time," Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
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