An immigration judge on Wednesday denied an asylum request from Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an MS-13 gang member and illegal alien whose case has drawn national attention after years of deportations, indictments, and legal challenges, as reported by The Gateway Pundit.
Abrego Garcia, who had been living illegally in Maryland, was deported earlier this year to El Salvador and placed in the country’s CECOT prison.
Despite his criminal background, left-leaning judges later ordered him returned to the United States after federal prosecutors in Tennessee indicted him on child sex-trafficking charges.
Following the indictment, the Trump administration informed Abrego Garcia that he might be deported to a third country, including Uganda or Eswatini, depending on international agreements.
In response, Abrego Garcia filed an emergency motion to reopen his asylum case, claiming he feared persecution and torture if deported.
“I fear persecution in Uganda on account of my race, nationality, political opinion, and membership in a particular social group. I also fear torture by or at the acquiescence of a public official in that country,” Abrego Garcia said in August, according to court filings.
On Wednesday, Regional Deputy Chief Immigration Judge Philip Taylor rejected the motion. He noted that Abrego Garcia’s asylum application was filed nearly six years after his immigration proceedings ended, far beyond the 90-day filing window required by law.
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Judge Taylor also ruled that Abrego Garcia’s claims of imminent deportation to Uganda or Eswatini were speculative.
BREAKING: @FoxNews has obtained an email ICE sent to Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s lawyers this afternoon notifying them that ICE now plans to deport him to the tiny African country of ESWATINI due to him claiming fear of persecution/torture in Uganda & 20+ other countries, which ICE… pic.twitter.com/qpPiE6ZeyB
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 5, 2025
“The word ‘may’ is permissive and indicates to the Court that in sending this notification to Respondent’s counsel, the Department sought to convey that it reserved the right to remove him to Uganda, not necessarily that it intended to do so, that it had decided to do so, or that it would do so imminently,” Taylor wrote, according to ABC News.
Attorneys for Abrego Garcia argued that because he was deported to El Salvador and later returned to the United States under federal custody, he should be eligible to apply for asylum within one year of his most recent entry.
The court disagreed, stating that the motion was both untimely and unsupported by evidence.
The Department of Homeland Security has not indicated whether Abrego Garcia will be removed to El Salvador, Uganda, Eswatini, or another third country. For now, he remains in federal custody facing child sex-trafficking charges in Tennessee.
The case underscores the administration’s broader crackdown on transnational gangs and its ongoing use of third-country removals to deal with violent criminal aliens.
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