Kilmar Abrego Garcia was taken into immigration custody after checking in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement at its office in Baltimore on Monday morning, his attorney announced.
Abrego Garcia was detained as soon as he entered ICE’s office, attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
“We asked the ICE officer what the reason for his detention was, the ICE officer didn’t answer,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said, adding that ICE officers would not say which detention center his client would be taken to.
“We asked the ICE officer for a copy of any paperwork that’s being served on him today, the ICE officer wouldn’t commit to even giving us that paperwork,” he added.
Sandoval-Moshenberg said a new lawsuit challenging Abrego Garcia’s detainment and potential deportation was just filed in Maryland.
Less than 24 hours after being released from criminal custody in Tennessee on Friday, ICE notified Abrego Garcia’s attorneys that he may be deported to Uganda and ordered him to report to their office in Maryland.
The notification from ICE came after Abrego Garcia rejected a plea deal to be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for pleading guilty to human smuggling charges and remaining in jail, according to a court filing from his attorneys.
In the filing, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys accused the federal government of trying to force their client to accept a guilty plea or face deportation to East Africa.
In July, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the government to “restore Abrego Garcia to his ICE Order of Supervision out of the Baltimore Field Office.”
But Xinis also said that if the government intends to deport Abrego Garcia to a third country, it needs to provide 72 hours’ notice.
The order allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to initiate “lawful immigration proceedings” when Abrego Garcia returned to Maryland.
The immigration proceedings may or may not include “lawful arrest, detention and eventual removal,” Xinis said in July.
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