Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been taken to another detention center further away from his family while the Trump administration keeps trying to deport him to the African country of Eswatini.
Abrego Garcia was taken from a center in Virginia to one in Pennsylvania, his lawyers said. The man has a hearing scheduled for October 6 before U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland. Until then, a temporary restraining order keeps him in ICE custody within a 200-mile radius of Maryland. The previous center he was detained him was closer to his family.
The Trump administration dismissed in a letter earlier this month Ábrego García's claims of fearing persecution in Uganda and highlighted that he has raised similar concerns about at least 22 countries, including El Salvador, Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, and Venezuela.
For that reason authorities are seeking to send him to Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, a landlocked nation in southern Africa ruled by King Mswati III. Human rights groups have long criticized Eswatini's record on political freedoms and migration policies.
Advocates argue that the Eswatini order violates U.S. obligations under international refugee conventions. Critics of the administration, however, insist that Ábrego García has exhausted his legal avenues and should be deported.
Ábrego García, 30, has lived in the United States for much of his life. He settled in Maryland, where he worked as a sheet-metal apprentice and raised two U.S. citizen children. His legal battle with ICE has spanned years, marked by deportation orders, temporary protections, and international headlines.
In March, the U.S. government wrongfully deported him to El Salvador, violating a 2019 order that recognized his risk of persecution. He was held in the country's notorious mega-prison before international pressure and a Supreme Court intervention forced his return to the United States in June.
Upon his return, ICE charged him with human smuggling, a case that remains pending. While he pleaded not guilty, ICE sought to deport him once again, this time to Uganda. His lawyers argued that such a transfer would expose him to political repression and danger in a country where he had no ties.
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