Trump Administration Threatens To Deport Abrego Garcia to Uganda: Report
Evan Vucci/AP photo
The Trump administration will deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda after 72 hours, according to Fox News National Correspondent Bill Melugin.
Abrego Garcia is an undocumented Salvadoran national who was arrested in Maryland in March and deported to El Salvador along with more than 200 immigrants. They were imprisoned in the country’s notorious CECOT prison without due process.
The Trump administration eventually brought back Abrego Garcia, complying with a federal court order. Upon his return, he was placed in federal custody and charged with human smuggling charges. On Friday, he was released and heading back to Maryland while awaiting trial.
However, as Melugin reported on Friday, the administration will now apparently forgo criminal proceedings against Abrego Garcia and deport him to Uganda. The Fox News reporter posted screenshots of an email from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, saying, “[Let] this email serve as notice that DHS may remove your client, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, to Uganda no earlier than 72 hours from now (absent weekends).”
The email, which is dated Aug. 22, instructs Abrego Garcia to report to ICE’s Baltimore field office on Monday. He appears to have no connection to Uganda, which struck a deal with the U.S. to take deportees. However, the BBC reported this week that Uganda was to take immigrants originating from Asia and Africa.
Abrego Garcia lives with his wife and children in Maryland and was a sheet metal worker at the time of his arrest. The Trump administration has alleged that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13, a notorious Salvadoran gang. In April, President Donald Trump insisted that a photoshopped image of Abrego Garcia with “MS13” tattooed on his knuckles was real and proved gang membership.
When informed that the image was photoshopped, Trump was incredulous.
“And you think it was photoshopped?” the president said. “Well, don’t photoshop it, go look at his hand. He had ‘MS-13.'”
