Trump Administration Attempts to Deport Abrego to Uganda

I had about five different topics about which I wanted to write today. But just as I sat down to start typing, I learned that Kilmar Ábrego García was taken into custody by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement service this morning. As a result, before getting to anything else, I want to provide an update on the horrific persecution of this man. With regard to Ábrego, the government has been duplicitous, overly zealous, and has demonstrated all the dictatorial tendencies for which the administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump has become known. This is truly a black stain on America.

To refresh, Ábrego is an El Salvadoran national who came to the United States in either 2011 or 2012. He moved to Maryland to live with his brother, who is a U.S. citizen. In 2016, he married a woman who is an American citizen. They later had a son. In 2019, Ábrego was detained in the parking lot of a Home Depot and accused of being a member of MS-13. The evidence of such membership was very tenuous, and the police officer who wrote the report was later suspended for misconduct. Nevertheless, an immigration judge (again, a misnomer because such judges are executive branch employees, not members of the judicial branch) issued a removal order. At the same time, the judge granted a withholding of removal that prevented Ábrego from being deported to El Salvador where, the judge was convinced, Ábrego faced credible threats to his safety. In March 2025, Ábrego was working as a union apprentice in Maryland. After picking up his son, Ábrego's car was stopped by Department of Homeland Security agents and he was detained. He was transferred through a number of detention facilities, eventually ending up in Texas. On March 15, just three days after being detained, Ábrego was placed on an airplane taking Venezuelans accused of being gang members to the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador.

There are a number of important facts about this deportation. The administration appears to have been hurrying to fill the planes and get them into the air because a judicial hearing was underway in Washington, D.C. that might result in the flights being blocked. Indeed, the judge issued an order from the bench that should have stopped the aircraft from taking off. However, administration officials ignored the order, claiming that they were waiting for a written decision. A number of Venezuelans were removed from one of the flights at the last minute, and Ábrego appears to have just been chosen to fill a seat. Ábrego does not have a criminal record and has not been convicted of crimes in either El Salvador or the United States. There was really no basis to send him to one of the world's most brutal prisons, and the withholding order made it explicitly unlawful.

Ábrego's family went to federal court in Maryland, attempting to have him returned to the United States. Government lawyers admitted that Ábrego had been deported as a result of an "administrative error." However, higher-level administration officials appeared unwilling to admit that a mistake had been made. These officials quickly demonstrated that they were more willing to lie and ignore judicial orders than they were to admit having made an error. This resulted in a series of contradictory actions by the administration aimed at punishing Ábrego. The first thing the administration did was fire the lawyers who had admitted the "administrative error". When the federal judge in Maryland ruled that the administration should effectuate Ábrego's return, government attorneys appealed the decision and argued that Ábrego was not in U.S. custody and that the U.S. had no control over what happened to him. El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, meeting with Trump, confirmed that he had no plans to return Ábrego. Ábrego's case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where it was ruled that the U.S. should "facilitate" Ábrego's return. Government officials, still arguing that they had no means of influencing what happened to Ábrego, said that if he presented himself at a U.S. port of entry, he would be admitted. This was duplicitous. The U.S. was paying millions of dollars to El Salvador and has tremendous influence with Bukele. It would have taken nothing but a word from Trump, and Ábrego would have been released.

Behind the scenes, the administration had opened an investigation into Ábrego for possible involvement in human trafficking. Ábrego was alleged to have driven undocumented migrants from the border to other parts of the country. In May, in a sealed indictment, the government charged Ábrego with two felonies. The circumstances of these charges were so abnormal that a long-serving prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's office resigned over the case. After months of arguing that the U.S. had no control over Ábrego, he was suddenly returned to the U.S. to face charges. However, this case soon appeared to be a farce. The government's two star witnesses were in jail on felony convictions. Both were offered release in return for testimony. Even so, one of them testified that Ábrego was not a MS-13 member. A judge ruled that Ábrego could be released pending trial. The government appears to have quickly realized that it did not have a winning case and began pressuring Ábrego to plead guilty. According to documents released by Ábrego's lawyers, the government offered to deport him to Costa Rica if he entered a guilty plea. Otherwise, he would be deported to Uganda. These sorts of threats make a mockery of the plea bargain system. Under such coercion, Ábrego could not legitimately tell a judge that he was voluntarily entering a plea. Moreover, the government simultaneously argued that it was determined to convict Ábrego of serious crimes and that it would immediately deport him if he were released pending trial. The only consistency on the government's behalf was its vindictiveness.

Ábrego was put in the ironic position of requesting to be held in jail. While the judge in his criminal case was willing to release him, the government had indicated that he would be immediately detained by ICE and would likely face deportation. While Ábrego remained in jail, his lawyers obtained an order in Maryland ordering the government to provide at least 72 hours’ notice before arresting Ábrego again. Notably, the order specifically said that weekends did not count in the 72 hours. Ábrego was eventually released on Friday and returned to Maryland to be reunited with his family. This morning, he attended a required check-in at the ICE office in Maryland and was immediately detained. This arrest clearly violates the federal court order. Moreover, ICE officials refused to provide any information about where Ábrego was taken. As has been ICE's behavior in the past, he is likely being shuffled among facilities to keep him out of reach of his lawyers. DHS announced in a tweet that Ábrego is being processed for removal to Uganda. This reveals another lie by the administration. Government witnesses had testified in federal court that no decision regarding Ábrego's fate would be made until he were taken into custody. Clearly, the government's intention to deport him to Uganda was taken before his detention this morning. Any number of administration officials should rightfully face judicial sanctions, and a number of them have likely exposed themselves to civil actions.

Ábrego's lawyers have once again filed a writ of habeas corpus in federal court. A standing order preventing Ábrego's deportation already exists, and the government is now prohibited from deporting Ábrego until 4 p.m. Wednesday. The next few hours may show whether the administration has entered a period of complete lawlessness in which the court system is completely ignored. The amount of time, resources, and money the government is devoting to persecute one individual is simply senseless. Ábrego's primary crime appears to be that he is a source of embarrassment to the Trump administration. It is almost unimaginable that a man who has been convicted of no crimes would first be wrongly sent to a brutal prison, then put on trial for manufactured charges, and then threatened with deportation to Uganda. All because the Trump administration cannot admit making a mistake. Ábrego's lawyers have indicated that he would be willing to accept refugee status in Costa Rica, so he will likely be leaving the U.S. regardless.