Discovering Kilmar Ábrego García: Who is He?

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Kilmar Ábrego García, who was wrongly deported to El Salvador in March before being returned to the United States, now faces another immediate deportation — this time to Uganda — in a case that has become a test case in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

He was arrested in Baltimore overnight by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), homeland security secretary Kristi Noem said on X.

Ábrego García, who was released last week from a jail in Tennessee, where he is facing human smuggling charges, and allowed to go home to Maryland pending trial, “will be processed for removal to Uganda,” the homeland security department said.

Lawyers for Ábrego García immediately filed a lawsuit contesting his deportation, and district judge Paula Xinis temporarily blocked his removal from the country while she holds further hearings on his case.

The attempt to deport Ábrego García to Uganda adds a new twist to a saga that became a flashpoint for Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration — and, critics say, his trampling of the law.

Who is Kilmar Ábrego García?

Ábrego García had been living in the US under protected legal status since 2019, when a judge ruled he should not be deported because he could be harmed in his home country.

Then he became one of more than 200 people sent to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison in March as part of Trump’s crackdown on undocumented migrants.

But justice department lawyers admitted the Salvadoran had been wrongly deported due to an “administrative error”. He was returned to US soil only to be detained again in Tennessee on human smuggling charges.

Why has Ábrego García’s case become so significant?

Ábrego García denies any wrongdoing, while the Trump administration alleges he is a violent MS-13 gang member involved in smuggling of other undocumented migrants.

Right-wing supporters praise the Republican president’s toughness, but legal scholars and human rights advocates have criticised what they say is a haphazard rush to deport people without even a court hearing, in violation of basic US law.

What are the latest developments ?

On Thursday, when it became clear that Ábrego García would be released the following day, government officials made him a plea offer: remain in custody, plead guilty to human smuggling and be deported to Costa Rica.

He declined the offer.

Protesters holding banners outside a building.

Protesters gathered outside the ICE field office to show their support for Kilmar Ábrego García and voice their opposition to his deportation. Source: SIPA USA / Robyn Stevens Brody

Ábrego García was required to check in with ICE in Baltimore on Monday as one of the conditions of his release.

Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of his lawyers, told a crowd of supporters outside the ICE field office that his client was immediately taken into custody when he turned up for the appointment.