BALTIMORE (Chatnewstv.com) — A Salvadoran man who has become a symbol of former President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda is asking for asylum in the United States as the administration presses to deport him to Uganda, his lawyers told a federal judge Wednesday.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 30, was detained Monday in Baltimore by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after being released from a Tennessee jail. The Trump administration alleges he is tied to the MS-13 gang — a claim he denies.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said he fears persecution and torture in Uganda, where the U.S. intends to deport him. They also argued in court that deporting him to a third country violates his rights under immigration law.
“He has the legal right to express fear of persecution and torture in Uganda,” his lawyers said in filings. They added that if deportation is unavoidable, Abrego Garcia has requested transfer to Costa Rica instead.
Abrego Garcia entered the U.S. from El Salvador in 2011 at age 16 to join his brother, a U.S. citizen. An immigration judge denied his asylum claim in 2019 because he applied more than a year after his arrival but granted him “withholding of removal,” which barred deportation to El Salvador due to gang threats against him and his family.
Despite that order, U.S. officials deported him to El Salvador last March, where he was imprisoned. After his wife sued and the Supreme Court intervened, the Trump administration returned him to the U.S. in June, but only to face human smuggling charges.
Now back in custody, Abrego Garcia has moved to reopen his case and apply for asylum again, which under U.S. law can provide a green card and path to citizenship.
His attorneys claim deporting him to Uganda amounts to retaliation for challenging his El Salvador deportation and refusing to plead guilty to smuggling charges. Critics in Uganda, meanwhile, accuse their government of striking a murky deal with Washington to accept deportees in exchange for easing political pressure on longtime President Yoweri Museveni.
