ICE says Kilmar Abrego Garcia could be deported to Uganda

(NewsNation) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to a high-security prison in El Salvador, was notified he may be deported to Uganda, according to a court filing.

The notification comes just after Abrego Garcia, who is not from Uganda, was released from a Tennessee jail on Friday where he had been held since June. A federal judge ruled he must be brought back to the U.S.

Immigration authorities said he declined an offer to be sent to Costa Rica in exchange for remaining in jail and pleading guilty to human smuggling charges. Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty to those charges and asked for the case to be dismissed, claiming that it was an attempt to punish him for challenging his deportation to El Salvador.

A trial date has been set for January 2027, but it is unclear if he can or will attend that trial.

In 2019, a U.S. immigration judge had barred Abrego Garcia from being deported back to his native El Salvador because he likely faced persecution there by local gangs who had terrorized him and his family. The Trump administration deported him there despite the judge’s 2019 order and later described it as an “administrative error.” President Donald Trump and other officials have since doubled down on claims Abrego Garcia was in the MS-13 gang.