Kilmer Abrego Garcia reports to the Baltimore Ice Field Office
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is scheduled to report to the Baltimore Ice Field office on Monday morning and could face deportation.
Scripps News -WMAR Baltimore
WASHINGTON – On September 5th, the Trump administration announced plans to send Kilmer Abrego Garcia. That arrest and battle to stay in the US became a flashpoint for Esvatini, a small African nation, with immigration crackdown.
In an email to Abrego’s lawyers, an official from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said that Eswatini, previously Swaziland, had replaced Uganda as a country designated for deportation. Officials said changes were made as Abrego said he feared persecution and torture in Uganda.
“That fear claim is hard to take seriously, especially considering that (through lawyers) claims they fear persecution and torture in at least 22 different countries… And yet, we will inform you that your new removal country is eswatini in Africa,” the official said in an email.
Originally from El Salvador, Abrego, currently hosting the Immigration Detention Center in Virginia, has no ties to Eswatini, an inland country adjacent to South Africa.
The Trump administration’s push to send Abrego to Esvatini was the latest saga twist that began in March, sending him to Salvadras prison despite US authorities accusing him of being a gang member and banning his expulsion from US judges to his hometown.
Abrego was brought back in June and faced criminal charges of illegally transporting immigrants living in the United States. He pleaded not guilty and his lawyers condemned the administration of hostile prosecution.
Abrego, a sheet metal worker who illegally entered the United States, was arrested and sent to El Salvador in Maryland along with his wife, children and two of hers (all American citizens).
Abrego’s lawyers said the administration was trying to force him to sue him.
According to court filings, the administration at one point offered to deport him to Costa Rica if he agreed to plead guilty, saying that if he did not, he would be sent to Uganda. The US sent out deportation flights to Esvatini in July, and DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said at the time that it carried “an individual very wild enough to refuse to reclaim its countries.”
(Reporting by Ted Hesson and Jan Wolf of Washington, edited by Tom Hoag)
