Kilmar Abrego Garcia Renewing US Asylum Bid, Lawyers Tell Judge

(Photo by Robyn Stevens Brody/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia informed a federal judge Wednesday that the Salvadoran national, whose legal saga has become a flashpoint at the center of President Donald Trump’s deportation drive, will renew his bid for asylum in the United States.

Abrego Garcia was arrested in Baltimore on Monday after being released from a Tennessee jail. Federal officials insist he is linked to the violent MS-13 gang, an accusation he denies.

His lawyers argued at a scheduled hearing on Wednesday that he faces persecution and torture if deported to Uganda, and that he has the right to reopen his asylum case.

“If the motion is granted then it’s been a sea change. We’re literally in a different ocean,” a source familiar with the case told CNN.

The move comes as the administration pushes for his deportation and days after officials floated he may be deported to Uganda after he refused to accept a deal that would have sent him to Costa Rica.

In 2019, an immigration judge denied Abrego Garcia’s asylum request on technical grounds, but barred his removal to El Salvador, where he and his family had allegedly been threatened by gangs. Despite that ruling, officials deported him in March to a notorious Salvadoran prison. His wife sued, and after a Supreme Court order, he was returned to the U.S. in June only to face federal human smuggling charges.

Now the administration is attempting to deport him once again, this time to Uganda.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis set a evidentiary hearing for October 6, where Trump administration officials will testify on their bid to re-deport Abrego Garcia.