Abrego Garcia Faces Deportation to Uganda After Rejecting Plea Offer, Attorneys Say

Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national currently facing federal human smuggling charges, allege that U.S. authorities are threatening to deport him to Uganda after he declined an offer to plead guilty to the charges and be deported to Costa Rica.

Abrego Garcia was released from a jail in Tennessee on Aug. 22 after a federal court permitted him to rejoin his family in Maryland for up to 48 hours, following the expiration of a stay on an order granting him pretrial release.

On Aug. 23, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys filed a notice with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, saying federal authorities had presented a plea deal the evening before his release.

“Late [on Aug. 21], in a last-ditch effort to forestall that release, the government informed Mr. Abrego’s counsel that if Mr. Abrego agreed to extend the stay of his release to Monday, August 25, 2025, and plead guilty to both counts of the Indictment, then the government would promise to deport Mr. Abrego to Costa Rica after serving any sentence imposed by the Court,” Abrego Garcia’s attorneys wrote in their Aug. 23 notice to the court.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys also said that, as he was released on Aug. 22, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents informed him that he had to report to ICE’s Baltimore Field Office on Aug. 25 to face deportation to Uganda.

Later in the evening of Aug. 22, the government allegedly informed Abrego Garcia that he had until he was due to report to the ICE field office to accept its offer to plead guilty and accept the deportation to Costa Rica, or give up on that plea offer forever.

The defense attorneys said this series of events could only be interpreted as the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security “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 a request for comment.

The U.S. government has alleged that Abrego Garcia has committed domestic abuse and is a member of the Salvadoran transnational gang MS-13, which was designated as a foreign terrorist organization earlier in 2025. Abrego Garcia has denied both allegations.

U.S. immigration authorities deported Abrego Garcia to El Salvador in March, in a move that District Judge Paula Xinis of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland said lacked a proper legal basis.

Xinis had ordered his return to the United States, and on April 10, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration must facilitate his return to the United States.

The Justice Department subsequently brought charges against Abrego Garcia and obtained a two-count indictment against him on May 21. The two charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee and include a count of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens and a count of unlawful transportation of illegal aliens.

Abrego Garcia has argued that the criminal case against him is in retaliation for his efforts to challenge his earlier deportation to El Salvador. On Aug. 19, his legal team filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that the charges amount to vindictive and selective prosecution.