Kilmar Abrego Garcia, aka Maryland Man, was returned to the Unites States after being deported to El Salvador. He is currently awaiting trial on a charge of human trafficking but was released from jail on Friday.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was released from jail in Tennessee on Friday so he can rejoin his family in Maryland while awaiting trial on human smuggling charges…
Although Abrego Garcia was deemed eligible for pretrial release, he had remained in jail at the request of his attorneys, who feared the Republican administration could try to immediately deport him again if he were freed. Those fears were somewhat allayed by a recent ruling in a separate case in Maryland, which requires immigration officials to allow Abrego Garcia time to mount a challenge to any deportation order…
Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty to the smuggling charges, which stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee for speeding. Body camera footage from a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer shows a calm exchange with Abrego Garcia. There were nine passengers in the car, and the officers discussed among themselves their suspicions of smuggling.
Meanwhile, one of his attorneys says the government offered him a deal: Plead guilty to the two trafficking charges and they would deport him to Costa Rica.
Sean Hecker, another one of Abrego’s attorneys, said in a court filing on Saturday that the Trump administration offered Abrego a plea deal earlier this week to deport him to Costa Rica.
Hecker wrote that if Abrego agreed to pause his release from federal custody until Monday, and plead guilty to both counts of the criminal indictment against him in Tennessee, “then the government would promise to deport Mr. Abrego to Costa Rica after serving any sentence imposed by the Court.”
The court filing contains correspondence from the Trump administration and Costa Rican government, showing that the Costa Rican government said it would not detain Abrego upon his arrival to the country.
Abrego Garcia refused that deal and so now it’s possible he is going to be deported much father away to Uganda.
The Trump administration might try to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda in the coming days, according to a notice sent by a Department of Homeland Security official to his lawyers on Friday.
The notice, made public in a court filing in Abrego Garcia’s human smuggling criminal case in Tennessee, came minutes after he was released from criminal custody pending his trial on the federal charges, and Abrego Garcia’s lawyers accused the government of using the notice to try to “coerce” Abergo Garcia to accept a plea deal in his case.
“Let this email serve as notice that DHS may remove your client, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, to Uganda no earlier than 72 hours from now (absent weekends),” the notice read in part…
Abrego’s lawyers have now notified the judge in the Middle District of Tennessee that ICE has informed Abrego of its intent to deport him to Uganda. Abrego could not face the criminal charges of human smuggling brought against him by Department of Justice in that case if he is out of the country.
His trial on the trafficking charges is set for January, but in theory the government only has to wait until Wednesday of this coming week to deport him to Uganda. Will the judge in his Tennessee trial try to intercede to prevent that? My guess is yes.
My own take is that the deportation to Uganda seems vindictive given that he hasn’t been convicted of trafficking yet. He’s here illegally so we can definitely deport him, but at least in Costa Rica he can speak the language and his family can go see him. Sending him to central Africa seems unnecessarily harsh. Alternatively, let him wait out his trial and see how that goes. If he’s found guilty, throw him in prison or deport him to a prison somewhere else. I guess we’ll see what happens next but for now he’s back in Maryland.
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