Aug. 27 — A federal judge temporarily blocked the US government from deporting Kilmar Ábrego García to another country, after immigration officers took him into custody at a check-in Tuesday morning.
The government brought Ábrego García back to the US after mistakenly deporting him to a notorious prison in El Salvador in March, and has since charged him with human trafficking.
US authorities told Ábrego García he may be deported to Uganda, following his refusal to accept a plea deal, his lawyers say.
Ábrego García filed a new federal lawsuit challenging his current detention and potential deportation “to Uganda or any other country” until he has a trial.
At Tuesday’s hearing, US District Judge Paula Xinis said she was barring the government from deporting Ábrego García until she could hold a hearing on the matter.
She also raised questions about the government’s intention to deport him to Uganda.
She said the US failed to demonstrate that Mr Ábrego García would not face harm if deported to Uganda.
The judge also expressed concerns that the government would send him to a country where he had no connections, should he not plead guilty to criminal charges.
“It is in my view plain that you can’t do that,” Judge Xinis said. “You can’t condition the relinquishment of constitutional rights in that regard.”
“You’d never get a knowing and voluntary guilty plea out of anyone if you do that,” she said.
Two existing court orders bar the government from deporting him from the continental US until Wednesday afternoon.
“My understanding is that removal is not imminent,” government attorney Drew Ensign told Judge Xinis. He noted that “third country removal takes some time”.
Judge Xinis told Mr Ensign that the Trump administration was “absolutely forbidden” to remove Ábrego García while those orders were in effect.
ICE is currently holding Ábrego García at a facility in the state of Virginia, his attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg told Judge Xinis.
He asked that the judge order his client remain detained within 200 miles of the court in order to ensure he had swift access to his legal proceedings.
Judge Xinis asked both parties to submit briefs this week ahead of a potential hearing.She is the same jurist who oversaw the initial lawsuit over Ábrego García’s mistaken deportation to El Salvador.
The Trump administration spent much of the day alleging Ábrego García was a criminal as justification for his latest action.
Ábrego García’s legal team accuses the US of trying to “coerce” him to plead guilty by threatening to re-deport him “halfway across the world”.
The US reached bilateral deportation agreements with Honduras and Uganda as part of the Trump crackdown on illegal immigration.
Uganda’s ministry of foreign affairs announced last Thursdsay that it had reached a temporary agreement with the United States with respect to “third country nationals who may not be granted asylum in the United States but are reluctant to or may have concerns about returning to their countries of origin”.
However, Uganda stated a preference to take individuals from African countries, and said it would not take individuals with criminal records or unaccompanied minors.
The saga of Ábrego García’s deportation case has been in the news since March when he was deported to his native El Salvador despite a court order blocking such action, and initially kept in the notorious Cecot prison.
But after US government officials acknowledged he was deported due to an “administrative error”, a judge ordered the administration to facilitate his return.
He was sent to Tennessee where he was charged in a human smuggling scheme and detained until his release on Friday after a ruling by a federal judge.
Ábrego García has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
