US threatens deportation of Kilmar Ábrego García to Uganda after release from custody

Less than a day after regaining his freedom, Salvadoran national Kilmar Ábrego García is once again facing uncertainty.

According to his legal team, US officials have warned that he could be deported to Uganda, a country with which he has no apparent connection.

Attorneys for Ábrego García say the threat comes after he refused a plea bargain that would have seen him plead guilty to human smuggling charges in exchange for deportation to Costa Rica. The deal surfaced shortly before his release from a Tennessee jail on Friday.

His lawyers now argue the US government is pressuring him into a guilty plea. In a filing, they accused federal agencies of attempting to "coerce" their client by threatening to send him “halfway across the world” to Uganda.

“The DOJ, DHS, and ICE are using their collective powers to force Mr. Abrego to choose between a guilty plea followed by relative safety, or rendition to Uganda, where his safety and liberty would be under threat,” his attorneys wrote.

Ábrego García’s case has been tangled in bureaucratic errors and international maneuvering for months. He was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March, where he was initially placed in the Cecot prison, before a US judge acknowledged the move was an “administrative error” and ordered his return. He was brought back in June and charged in Tennessee in connection with a smuggling operation. He has pleaded not guilty.

Court filings indicate that Costa Rica had agreed to receive him as a refugee if he accepted the plea, though the arrangement would only take effect after serving any sentence in the US. His attorneys say he now has until Monday to accept the Costa Rica offer, “or else that offer will be off the table forever.”

Meanwhile, the US has informed his lawyers that deportation to Uganda remains under consideration. Documents obtained by CBS show that Washington reached agreements with both Honduras and Uganda to receive certain deportees.

“This is a temporary arrangement with conditions including that individuals with criminal records and unaccompanied minors will not be accepted,” Bagiire Vincent Waiswa, Uganda’s permanent secretary of foreign affairs, said in a statement. He added that Uganda would prefer to receive deportees from African countries.

Ábrego García is now with his family in Maryland and is scheduled to appear before an immigration judge in Baltimore on Monday. If the court sides with the government, his deportation could take place within days