Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s attorneys on Sept. 5 that the agency has set Eswatini as the new deportation country for the El Salvadoran, replacing the previously planned Uganda.
The agency had previously informed the Salvadoran that he would be deported to Uganda, which he refused, citing fears of being persecuted or tortured in the African nation.
ICE has now designated Eswatini, a tiny African nation bordering South Africa and Mozambique, as Garcia’s new country of removal, according to an email shared on X by the Department of Homeland Security.
The email states that Abrego Garcia’s claims of persecution in Uganda are “hard to take seriously,” noting that he has made similar claims for “at least 22 different countries,” including Mexico and Costa Rica.
The Epoch Times reached out to Abrego Garcia’s attorney and ICE for comment, and did not receive a response by publication time.
Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant suspected of being a member of the MS-13 gang, was sent to El Salvador’s Center for Terrorism Confinement along with other deportees in March.
He was returned to the United States in June to face immigrant smuggling charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop, to which he has pleaded not guilty. Abrego Garcia is currently being held in an immigration detention center in Virginia.
His attorneys said that federal authorities had tried offering him a plea deal. In an Aug. 23 court filing, they alleged that authorities threatened to deport him to Uganda after he refused an offer to plead guilty and be removed to Costa Rica.
The defense attorneys said this series of events could only be interpreted as the authorities “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.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee, which is leading the case, did not respond to an earlier request for comment.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis issued a brief ruling on Aug. 27 blocking Abrego Garcia’s deportation until at least early October, requiring that he remain within 200 miles of the courthouse in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Abrego Garcia has argued that the criminal case against him is in retaliation for his efforts to challenge his earlier deportation to El Salvador, his home country.
On Aug. 19, his legal team filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that the charges amount to vindictive and selective prosecution.
Garcia illegally entered the United States in 2011 and was living in Maryland. He was arrested and deported to El Salvador in March for allegedly being a member of the MS-13 gang, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, despite an immigration judge having issued a withholding of removal—which legally barred his deportation to his home country—in 2019 because of concerns for his safety.
The Supreme Court in April ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return to the United States after the Department of Justice acknowledged an administrative error in Abrego Garcia’s deportation.
Ryan Morgan contributed to this report.
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