Judge temporarily bars Kilmar Abrego García’s deportation to Uganda
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Kilmar Abrego García on Monday, days after his release from criminal custody, a first step in the Trump administration’s plan to deport him to Uganda, potentially before he faces trial on human smuggling charges.
Trump officials had insisted Abrego would “never go free” in the United States, and they blasted a federal judge’s ruling in Tennessee that the government had failed to prove he was a flight risk or threat to the community. His freedom lasted less than 72 hours. Officers took Abrego into custody after he arrived at a required check-in with ICE in Baltimore.
Whether the government will succeed in deporting him remains unclear. Hours later, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis temporarily barred the administration from removing him until she can hold a hearing to ensure that the Trump administration is following the law.
“Your clients are absolutely forbidden at this juncture to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia from the continental United States,” she told Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign. She then pointedly asked whether her order was understood.
“Your honor, yes,” Ensign said. “We certainly understand that.”
Xinis was the first federal judge to order the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego’s return from El Salvador after the government admitted it had mistakenly deported him to a megaprison for gang members in March. Xinis clashed with government lawyers during those proceedings, accusing them of failing to comply with her rulings.
Xinis said during Monday’s hearing that she wanted to ensure Abrego’s due process rights are protected and that she will hold a hearing as soon as this week. She said she was willing to move “as fast as is just.”
Abrego’s arrest and the legal scramble over his possible removal marked the latest chapter in a lengthy legal saga in a case that has come to symbolize the Trump administration’s aggressive approach to immigration enforcement. Abrego is an undocumented immigrant who arrived in the U.S. as a teenager, fleeing what he and his family have described as threats from gangs.
The government returned Abrego from El Salvador in June, only after securing an indictment against him on smuggling charges in Tennessee. Those charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop that resulted in no charges at the time and to which Abrego has pleaded not guilty.
Abrego’s lawyers have asserted that the government is threatening him with removal to Uganda to coerce him into pleading guilty and accept deportation to Costa Rica - a Spanish-speaking country that is regarded as the safest in Central America. Prosecutors on Monday called that claim “misleading” and “dishonest,” and they maintained that they undertook their plea negotiations with Abrego in good faith.
Ensign said during Monday’s court hearing that regardless of Xinis’ order, Abrego’s deportation was “not imminent.”
“Third-country removals often take some time,” he said.
Earlier in the day, dozens of activists and supporters had rallied outside the ICE field office in Baltimore where Abrego arrived for his check-in. They chanted, sang and carried signs that read “Free Kilmar.” Abrego arrived clutching his wife’s hand and dressed in a pair of jeans and a collared black, gray and white shirt.
“Regardless of what happens today with ICE, promise me this,” he told the crowd in Spanish, “that you will keep fighting, praying, believing in dignity and liberty, not just for me but for all.”
He entered the building walking silently, his head down and eyes focused on the ground. Abrego’s attorneys and wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, emerged less than an hour later without him and said he had been taken into immigration custody. People began to boo.
“We asked the ICE officer what the reason for his detention was. The ICE officer didn’t answer,” said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Abrego’s immigration attorneys. “The ICE officer stated that he’ll be taken to a detention center. We asked the ICE officer, ‘Which detention center?’ The ICE officer said that they weren’t able to say.”
ICE detention records showed Abrego was transferred to a detention center in Virginia by Monday afternoon, and Xinis barred authorities from moving him from there for now to ensure he had access to his civil and criminal attorneys.
President Donald Trump and his Cabinet celebrated Abrego’s detention and repeated their claims that he is a threat to society, though he has no criminal convictions. Trump, asked by reporters about Abrego on Monday, called him “an animal.” Attorney General Pam Bondi said that Abrego would “no longer terrorize our country.”
“President Trump is not going to allow this illegal alien, who is an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator to terrorize American citizens any longer,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem wrote on social media, accusing Abrego of a host of crimes that have not been proved or, in some cases, charged in court. Abrego has not been charged with any child sex abuse offenses, and his lawyers and family have denied he is a gang member.
In their new lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Maryland, Abrego’s lawyers asked Xinis to block immigration authorities from deporting him to Uganda before he has exhausted his rights to challenge that removal under federal law and, should he be removed, require that officials first attempt to deport him to Costa Rica. The attorneys also asked Xinis to declare Abrego’s detention unlawful and to release him from ICE custody.
“The fact that they’re holding Costa Rica as a carrot and using Uganda as a stick to coerce him is such clear evidence that they’re weaponizing the immigration system in a manner that is completely unconstitutional,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said at Monday’s rally, adding later, “They’re going to play games with his life.”
Abrego has requested an interview with a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services asylum officer, in which he is expected to detail his fears of being removed to Uganda, his lawyers said. If he shows it is more likely than not that he could face persecution, his case could be referred to immigration court to determine whether he is eligible for protection from removal there. Federal law and the Convention Against Torture prohibit deporting someone to a country if they have met this threshold, even if they have a serious criminal record.
Abrego won protection from deportation to El Salvador in 2019, saying he feared persecution from gangs there.
Because the administration paroled Abrego in the United States when it returned him to face trial in June, his lawyers say he is also eligible to apply for a green card through his wife, who is a U.S. citizen, but that is a discretionary decision the Trump administration is unlikely to approve.
Late Monday, an immigration attorney for Abrego filed an emergency motion to reopen his case in immigration court and seek a stay of removal, a move that could alter his case dramatically. In the motion, attorney Benjamin Osorio wrote that Abrego “is now eligible for asylum” based in part on the government’s decision to unlawfully expel him to El Salvador, where he has said he was severely beaten while detained there.
Prosecutors in Abrego’s criminal case in Tennessee allege he is an MS-13 gang leader and prolific smuggler in a ring that illegally transported thousands of undocumented workers across the country. His attorneys have called the prosecution “vindictive and selective,” arguing that the government charged Abrego only to punish him for challenging his removal to El Salvador.
The judge has scheduled a trial for January. If ICE follows through on its threats to deport Abrego first, those charges would probably be dropped.
In a court filing Monday, Robert E. McGuire, acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, balked at the claims from Abrego’s lawyers that ICE’s threat of possible deportation to Uganda was being used to coerce Abrego’s guilty plea. McGuire said that plea negotiations began in mid-July and continued up until last weekend and that Abrego’s attorneys had made deportation to a Spanish-speaking third country, like Mexico, a condition of any decision to plead guilty from the start.
McGuire said the U.S. government obtained assurances that Costa Rica was willing to accept Abrego just 48 hours before Abrego’s legal team first lodged its allegations that he was being pressured to accept a plea deal or face deportation to Uganda.
“These negotiations were not preliminary,” McGuire wrote. “They were almost concluded and nearly resolved this case.”
Erin Cox contributed to this report.
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Video: Kilmar Abrego García addressed the media and supporters outside ICE’s Baltimore field office on Aug. 25, as he arrived for a required check-in after his release pending trial on human smuggling charges.(c) 2025 , The Washington Post
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