Topline
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was detained again after reporting to Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday, his attorney confirmed to Forbes, though MSNBC reported a district judge has temporarily prevented Trump administration officials from deporting him to Uganda.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura enter a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore after speaking to a crowd of supporters.
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Key Facts
Judge Paula Xinis temporarily blocked Abrego Garcia’s deportation until a hearing is held to determine whether the Trump administration will give him a chance to fight his removal in court, according to MSNBC.
Although he was released to his family in Maryland on Friday, Abrego Garcia was ordered to report to immigration authorities in Baltimore by Monday.
In a statement, Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem said law enforcement were “processing him for deportation,” later repeating the administration’s claims that the El Salvador-born Abrego Garcia was an “MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator.”
In a note sent on Friday, the administration indicated they could deport Abrego Garcia to Uganda, in east Africa, “no earlier than 72 hours from now (absent weekends).”
Abrego Garcia would be willing to leave and accept refugee status in Costa Rica, his attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg told Forbes.
The Trump administration previously offered Abrego Garcia a deal to deport him to Costa Rica in exchange for pleading guilty to federal human smuggling charges and serving the sentence the courts imposed.
“The government’s campaign of retribution continues because Mr. Abrego refuses to be coerced into pleading guilty to a case that should never have been brought,” said Sean Hecker, one of Abrego Garcia’s defense attorneys, in a statement sent to Forbes.
Before his meeting with ICE, Abrego Garcia spoke through a translator to a crowd of supporters outside the Baltimore field office, Fox 5 Baltimore reported, where he thanked his family, attorneys, and God before offering words of solidarity for other migrants separated from their families: “Never lose hope, you will once again see your family soon.”
Crucial Quote
“When I was detained, I remembered memories with my family,” an emotional Abrego Garcia told the crowd of supporters outside the Baltimore ICE field office, before adding “those moments will continue to give me hope to continue in this fight.” After his detainment, his attorney Sandoval-Moshenberg told the crowd that ICE had only told his client they wanted to interview him. “Clearly, that was false,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said. “There was no need for them to take him into ICE detention,” he told the crowd. “He was already under electronic monitoring from the U.S. Marshal Service and basically under house arrest. The only reason they have chosen to take him into detention is to punish him. To punish him for exercising his constitutional rights.”
Key Background
Abrego Garcia was a sheet metal apprentice living in a Maryland suburb. He immigrated to the U.S. illegally from El Salvador in 2012 as a teenager, but a judge granted him “withholding of removal” status in 2019 due to fears of gang retaliation in his country of birth. Despite his temporary protections, Abrego Garcia was deported back to El Salvador in March, where he ended up in the country’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT—a prison the Central American nation uses to hold gang members that has become notorious for allegations of human rights abuses. The Trump administration later acknowledged that Abrego Garcia’s deportation was an “administrative error,” but stalled efforts to return him to the U.S. until June. He was quickly indicted on human smuggling charges related to a traffic stop in 2022, when officers stopped him as he was driving eight other people through the state. Abrego Garcia said he was driving workers for a construction job, and was allowed to leave with a warning for driving with an expired license. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. The Trump administration has tried to portray Abrego Garcia as a criminal and a gang member, and the White House doubled down on this with a social media post insisting he was “still NOT a Maryland Dad” on Monday morning.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharyfolk/2025/08/25/judge-temporarily-blocks-kilmar-abrego-garcias-deportation-to-uganda-report-says/
