Kilmar Abrego Garcia fights to stay in the U.S. while battling three court cases Daniella SilvaSeptember 1, 2025 at 7:00 PM Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man who has become an international symbol of President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign, was wrongfully deported to El Salvador in March, the...
- - Kilmar Abrego Garcia fights to stay in the U.S. while battling three court cases
Daniella SilvaSeptember 1, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man who has become an international symbol of President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign, was wrongfully deported to El Salvador in March, then brought back to the U.S. months later only to face charges and new deportation efforts.
The Trump administration has repeatedly claimed that he is a member of the dangerous Salvadoran gang known as MS-13 and should not be allowed to stay here. In August, immigration officials said they intend to send him to Uganda. His family and attorneys deny that he has any gang connections and say he is being punished for fighting for his constitutional rights. They are seeking his release and to stop his deportation.
Abrego, 30, has found himself in the middle of Trump's crackdown on immigration as his legal battles highlight the new deportation policies the administration has sought to use.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was released from Putnam County Jail in Tennessee on Aug. 22. (Brett Carlsen / AP)
The Salvadoran father of three is currently enmeshed in several court cases.
Most recently, he applied for asylum in immigration court after he was returned to the U.S.
His lawyers have also filed a lawsuit to ensure his right to due process as his deportation case continues. That case is being heard by a federal judge in Maryland, Paula Xinis.
Finally, he has a federal criminal case in Tennessee, where prosecutors have charged him with human trafficking. He has pleaded not guilty.
Here are the latest updates on what could happen to Abrego and how this all unfolded.
A fight to remain in the U.S.
Most recently, on Aug. 25, Abrego's attorneys asked an immigration judge for protection from deportation amid threats by the Trump administration to send him to the African nation of Uganda, a country to which he has no ties.
Abrego filed the case with Baltimore's immigration court in the hopes of being granted asylum or a withholding of removal to Uganda, if an immigration judge determines there is a credible threat to his life if he is sent there.
He applied for asylum when he first arrived in the U.S. but that request was denied in 2019 because Abrego had missed the one-year deadline to file. A judge, however, ruled that he specifically could not be deported to El Salvador because of credible threats he faced from gangs there.
His attorneys argue that he's now able to reapply for asylum because he exited the country — when he was deported — and re-entered, which started a new one-year clock.
Abrego spoke at a press conference on Aug. 25, moments before his scheduled check-in with ICE. (Elizabeth Frantz / Reuters)
Abrego cannot be deported to El Salvador, but that still leaves the door open to being deported to some other country, a policy pursued by Trump. In August, the administration suggested sending him to Uganda, which has agreed to take in deportees from the U.S. if they have no criminal record and aren't an unaccompanied minor.
Abrego also has a case before Xinis, the federal judge in Maryland. In that case, his attorneys are seeking to ensure his due process rights are protected as they attempt to stop his deportation.
Last week, Xinis ordered that Abrego remain in the U.S., temporarily blocking his deportation to Uganda, and set an evidentiary hearing for mid-October. Her order also said that Abrego should remain in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement within 200 miles of the court in Greenbelt, Maryland, until she is able to rule on his petition by mid-October. That prevents Abrego from being sent to a state like Louisiana, where the courts tend to have a higher denial rate for immigrants seeking protections.
What to watch for next -
Oct. 6: Judge Xinis will hold an evidentiary hearing in Abrego's case, which is expected to include witness testimony.
Mid-October: Xinis has indicated she could rule in his case sometime around then. Xinis' decision could determine if Abrego remains in detention as his immigration case plays out.
In the meantime, Abrego remains at a Virginia detention center — about 200 miles from the Maryland courthouse.
The Trump administration's efforts to deport Abrego to Uganda could have larger implications for its policy of deportations to "third countries." Rwanda, Costa Rica, El Salvador and others have agreements with the U.S. to accept deportees.
Federal prosecutors said that if he pleaded guilty to human trafficking charges in a federal criminal case brought against him in June in Tennessee, and served a maximum of 10 years in prison, he could instead be deported to Costa Rica, which said it would receive him as a refugee and allow him to live freely.
An attorney for Abrego said he would not accept the plea deal, as he "will not accept charges of which he's not guilty."
A turbulent return
Abrego's detention in the U.S. and the Trump administration's attempt to deport him to a "third country" follow months of political firestorm.
He was first deported to El Salvador in March because of what officials described as an "administrative error" that was in violation of the 2019 court order.
Abrego was sent along with hundreds of people, most of them from Venezuela, to a notorious Salvadoran megaprison. The fight for his return sparked a legal back-and-forth that involved the Supreme Court, which ruled in April that the federal government had to facilitate Abrego's return. The decision was a high-profile blow to the administration.
Jennifer Vasquez Sura, Abrego's wife, discovered he was being held at the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, through photos released by the government. (U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland via AP)
After much resistance from the Trump administration, he was returned to the U.S. in June and immediately hit with human smuggling charges out of Tennessee. He has pleaded not guilty and denied the allegations.
The charges accuse him of transporting people who were not legally in the United States. Abrego was pulled over in Tennessee in 2022 while driving a van transporting several others, but was not charged with anything at the time. He has said he was helping transport workers and denied the charges.
After being returned to the U.S. from El Salvador on June 6, Abrego was immediately placed in federal custody in Tennessee. He was then released from federal custody on parole on Aug. 22 — leading to a tearful reunion with his family after more than 160 days apart.
Abrego was reunited with family members on Aug. 22. (CASA )
He was only free for three days. Abrego was told on the Friday he was released that he needed to appear for an immigration check-in on the following Monday. As his attorneys expected, he was taken into ICE custody and hours later sent to a detention center in Virginia on Aug. 25.
Abrego's conflicts with the Trump administration began on March 12, when he was pulled over by ICE officers while driving with his son on his way home from a worksite in Baltimore. He was on the phone with his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, and told her he had pulled into the parking lot of an Ikea when an officer "put his lights on."
When an officer got to Abrego's car, according to Vasquez Sura, they told him to roll down the windows and step out of the vehicle. Abrego told the officer his son was in the back seat and had special needs. In a sworn declaration, she said officers then hung up the call, and minutes later someone called back, identified themself as a person with the Department of Homeland Security, and told her she needed to get there in 10 minutes to pick up her son or they would "call child protective services."
Vasquez Sura publicly pushed for her husband's release after he was arrested in March. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)
When she arrived, she said, Abrego was on the curb in handcuffs, and officers on the scene claimed his "immigration status had changed," Vasquez Sura has said.
He was arrested by immigration authorities and transferred to facilities in Maryland, Louisiana and Texas, the sworn declaration said. On March 15, three days after being pulled over, he was flown to El Salvador.
Source: "AOL AOL General News"
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