Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported in March before being brought back to the U.S. to face new criminal charges, was taken into immigration custody after checking in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement at its office in Baltimore on Monday morning, his attorney said.
Abrego Garcia was detained as soon as he entered ICE’s office, attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
“We asked the ICE officer what the reason for his detention was, the ICE officer didn’t answer,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said, adding that ICE officers would not say which detention center his client would be taken to.
“We asked the ICE officer for a copy of any paperwork that’s being served on him today, the ICE officer wouldn’t commit to even giving us that paperwork,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
Less than 24 hours after being released from criminal custody in Tennessee on Friday, ICE notified Abrego Garcia’s attorneys that he may be deported to Uganda and ordered him to report to their office in Maryland.
The notification from ICE came after Abrego Garcia rejected a plea deal to be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for pleading guilty to human smuggling charges and remaining in jail, according to a court filing from his attorneys.
In the filing, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys accused the federal government of trying to force their client to accept a guilty plea or face deportation to East Africa.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, attends an event with supporters, as he appears for a check-in at the ICE Baltimore field office three days after his release from criminal custody in Tennessee, in Baltimore, Maryland, August 25, 2025.
Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native, was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which his family and attorneys deny.
He was brought back to the U.S. in June to face charges in Tennessee of allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the U.S. while he was living in Maryland. He has pleaded not guilty.
In July, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered that, should he be released while awaiting trial, Abrego Garcia be placed under ICE supervision in Maryland, where he was living with his wife and children before he was mistakenly deported in March, “to “provide the kind of effective relief to which a wrongfully removed alien is entitled upon return.”
Xinis also said that if the government intends to deport Abrego Garcia to a third country, it needs to provide 72 hours’ notice.
The order allowed the Trump administration to initiate “lawful immigration proceedings” when Abrego Garcia returned to Maryland. The immigration proceedings may or may not include “lawful arrest, detention and eventual removal,” Xinis said in July.
In a habeas lawsuit filed Monday morning, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers accused the federal government of taking him into custody without providing him the right to be heard “on his expressed fears of persecution and torture” should he be deported to Uganda.
“Respondents are seeking to remove Petitioner to Uganda — a process which they know will trigger lengthy legal proceedings — rather than Costa Rica — the country for removal designated by Petitioner that offered him resettlement — in order to punish him for his constitutionally protected activity,” the attorneys said in the filing.
The attorneys allege the government is seeking to deport Abrego Garcia to Uganda instead of Costa Rica for “refusing to plead guilty in his criminal proceedings” in Tennessee.
“In so doing, Respondents know and intend for Petitioner to be detained by ICE for a lengthy period of time, even though a removal to Costa Rica could be effectuated with little or no ICE detention at all, and Respondents seek to use ICE detention to punish Petitioner,” the filing states.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland shortly after Abrego Garcia was detained by ICE, requests that the court block the government from detaining Abrego Garcia “more than 200 miles” from the courthouse in Baltimore.
The attorneys are also asking the court to block the government from removing Abrego Garcia to Uganda without first attempting to remove him to Costa Rica.
They also ask the court to order the government to allow Abrego Garcia to have a “reasonable fear” interview before their client is deported to Uganda.
