Kilmar Abrego Garcia taken into ICE custody at immigration appointment

BALTIMORE — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who reunited with his family last week after 160 days apart following his mistaken deportation to El Salvador, was taken into ICE custody on Monday after an immigration check-in, his attorney said.

The check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Baltimore was part of the conditions of his release from federal custody on parole on Friday.

While such meetings are usually routine and are meant for case updates, Abrego's attorneys said they expected he would be taken into ICE custody during the check-in after the Trump administration announced over the weekend its intention to deport him to Uganda.

There was no need to take him into ICE detention. ... The only reason they took him into detention was to punish him," for using his constitutional right to speak up and fight proceedings, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Abrego's attorneys, said Monday morning.

Sandoval-Moshenberg said on Friday that a notice said the 8 a.m. meeting on Monday would be for an interview.

"Clearly that was false," he added.

He said lawyers asked ICE officers why Abrego was taken into custody, and the officers would not answer. The ICE officers would also not give information as to where Abrego is going, Sandoval-Moshenberg said.

"The fact that they're holding Costa Rica as a carrot and using Uganda as a stick to try to coerce him to plead guilty to a crime is such clear evidence that they're weaponizing the immigration system in a matter that is completely unconstitutional, and specifically weaponizing the decision of which country they send him to," Sandoval-Moshenberg said.

Sandoval-Moshenberg said Monday that Abgrego has filed a new lawsuit in federal district court for the district of Maryland "seeking to ensure that he is not removed from the United States pending his immigration proceedings."

The lawsuit asks for an order from a Maryland federal judge that Abrego not be allowed to be removed from the United States, unless he is given proper due process to fight his potential deportation.

The suit challenges Abrego's deportation to Uganda or any other country unless and until he's had a fair trial, Sandoval-Moshenberg said. He later argued that deporting his client to any country without any credible assurances that he can stay there would be "just a very inconvenient layover to El Salvador."

Abrego spoke at a news conference before heading into his ICE appointment on Monday morning, surrounded by family, supporters, faith leaders and his legal team, who were all calling for his freedom.

"My name is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and I want you to remember this, remember that I am free and I was able to be reunited with my family," he said in Spanish before a translator repeated in English.

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This was a miracle. Thank you to God and thank you to the community," Abrego added. "I want to thank each and every one of you who marched, lift your voices, never stop praying and continue to fight in my name."

It's the latest move by the government to boot Abrego from the country after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March, in violation of a 2019 court order. After much legal resistance, Abrego was returned to the U.S. in June and hit with human smuggling charges out of Tennessee, which he pleaded not guilty to.

The Trump administration has repeatedly accused Abrego of being a gang member part of the notorious MS-13, which his attorneys have denied. Abrego’s lawyers have said he illegally immigrated to the U.S. when he was 16 to join his brother in Maryland to escape gang violence in El Salvador.

The Trump administration offered Abrego a plea deal last week, his lawyers said in a Saturday court filing that was part of their efforts to get the charges in Tennessee dropped over what they consider to be "vindictive" and "selective" prosecution.

If he pleads guilty to the federal charges out of Tennessee and serves time, he can be deported to Costa Rica. The Costa Rican government said he'd live as a free man there, according to the filing.

Before Monday morning's appointment, Sandoval-Moshenberg said his client would not be taking the plea deal as Abrego "will not accept charges of which he's not guilty." This means the agreement to be deported to Costa Rica could be off the table.

Abrego's attorneys rebuffed the Trump administration's apparent attempt to strong-arm him.

"What they’re trying to do here is punish him. They’re trying to use the deportation system, and specifically, they’re trying to use which country they’re planning on deporting him to as a means of punishing him for exercising his constitutional rights," Sandoval-Moshenberg said Saturday outside Abrego's brother's home in Maryland.