The federal government is trying to force Kilmar Abrego Garcia to accept a guilty plea or face deportation to Uganda, his attorneys claimed in a filing on Saturday.
The Salvadoran man, who was wrongly deported in March before being brought back to the United States to face human smuggling charges, was released from criminal custody in Tennessee and sent back to Maryland on Friday.
After Abrego Garcia declined an offer to be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for remaining in jail and pleading guilty to the human smuggling charges, his attorneys say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement informed them that he could be deported to Uganda and ordered him to report to their office in Baltimore on Monday.
The attorneys said the development came after the government on Thursday said that if Abrego Garcia agreed to extend the stay and plead guilty to both counts of the indictment, the government would promise to deport Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica.
ABC News first reported that the government of Costa Rica informed the U.S. embassy on Thursday that the country would be willing to accept Abrego Garcia “upon the conclusion of any criminal sentence he may serve in the U.S.”
But after Abrego Garcia refused to extend the stay and was released on Friday, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys claim the government “responded to Mr. Abrego’s release with outrage.”
“Despite having requested and received assurances from the government of Costa Rica that Mr. Abrego would be accepted there, within minutes of his release from pretrial custody, an ICE representative informed Mr. Abrego’s counsel that the government intended to deport Mr. Abrego to Uganda and ordered him to report to ICE’s Baltimore Field Office Monday,” his attorneys said.
On Friday evening following Abrego Garcia’s release, his attorneys said DHS informed Abrego Garcia that he has until first thing Monday morning to accept a plea in exchange for deportation to Costa Rica, “or else that offer will be off the table forever.”
“There can be only one interpretation of these events: the DOJ, DHS, and ICE are using their collective powers to force Mr. Abrego to choose between a guilty plea followed by relative safety, or rendition to Uganda, where his safety and liberty would be under threat,” Abrego Garcia’s attorneys said.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on the filing Saturday.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had criticized Abrego Garcia’s release on Friday saying, “Today, we reached a new low with this publicity hungry Maryland judge mandating this illegal alien who is a MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator be allowed free.”
Abrego Garcia’s trial in his human smuggling case was set to begin on Jan. 27, 2027.
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