Salvadoran Abrego García Seeks Asylum Protection to Avoid Deportation to Uganda

Washington, (EFE).— Salvadoran national Kilmar Ábrego García, who has become the most visible face of the fight to guarantee due process for immigrants in the U.S., has asked an immigration judge to reopen his case in pursuit of political asylum as part of his battle to avoid being deported to Uganda.

His lawyers petitioned an immigration court to reopen the case that was closed in 2019, when a judge denied his first asylum request because it was filed after the deadline, but blocked his deportation after determining that his life was in danger in El Salvador.

The new asylum request marks another twist in the fight of the Salvadoran, who is married to a U.S. citizen and is the father of a five-year-old girl, in his legal battle against the administration of President Donald Trump. Trump’s government deported him in March after an administrative error but was forced to return him to the U.S. three months later, complying with a court order.

The White House has repeatedly said its goal is to expel Ábrego García from the country, labeling him a “dangerous” person with ties to Salvadoran gangs.

To that end, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained him last Monday when he appeared for an appointment at its Baltimore (Maryland) offices.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the same day that Ábrego García was in the process of being deported to Uganda.

But this Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland halted the Salvadoran’s deportation until October 6, when she will consider a habeas corpus petition— the legal principle that protects individuals from arbitrary detention— filed by his lawyers.

Xinis, the same judge who in April ordered the U.S. government to facilitate Ábrego’s return from El Salvador, has questioned the White House over its push to expel him and its disregard of her rulings.

The judge’s order prevents ICE from deporting Ábrego García outside the continental United States and ensures he will remain in an ICE detention facility near his Maryland home, so he can access his legal defense, according to his attorney Simón Sandoval-Moshenberg.

Xinis is expected to protect Ábrego García from deportation until she issues her ruling. She said that after the October 6 hearing she planned to issue a decision within 30 days, according to CBS.

The Asylum Case

During this time, Ábrego’s legal team will have to wait for an immigration court to agree to reopen his case.

However, the outlook is not very promising since those courts fall under the Department of Justice, the same entity that unexpectedly charged him in a Tennessee federal court with human smuggling after the Trump administration’s mistaken deportation of him to El Salvador.

Ábrego García pleaded not guilty to the two charges, and a Tennessee judge, where he was indicted, ordered his release on bond pending trial, which is scheduled to begin in January.

The Salvadoran was released last Friday from pretrial detention in Tennessee under a court order and returned to Maryland, where he has lived for more than a decade.

One day after his release, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) offered him a plea deal in the human smuggling case that would allow him to be deported to Costa Rica, or else he would be sent to Uganda.

“Deporting him to Costa Rica is not justice. It’s just a somewhat less bad option. But the insistence on carrying out a deportation to Uganda shows that the real motive here is not simply removing him from the country but punishing him and keeping him detained,” said Sandoval-Moshenberg at a press conference.

Ábrego has been assured that he would be a free citizen in Costa Rica, with refugee protections preventing deportation to El Salvador, where, according to his lawyers, he faces persecution and violence from gangs— the same reason a judge blocked his deportation in 2019, the defense lawyer added.

In this regard, Judge Xinis believes there are “several grounds” under which she may have jurisdiction to grant a deportation waiver, including the fact that Uganda has not agreed to provide Ábrego with protections such as freedom of movement, refugee status, and protection from being sent to El Salvador.

For now, President Trump has only said that they have the situation “under control,” even though the migrant’s lawyers are “working the system through liberal courts.”