Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose arrest and fight to stay in the U.S. has become a flashpoint in President Donald Trump ’s immigration crackdown, surrendered Monday morning to U.S. immigration authorities in Baltimore. He faces possible efforts by the Trump administration to deport him to Uganda.
The 30-year-old Salvadoran national was wrongfully deported in March to a notorious prison in his native El Salvador. He was returned to the U.S. in June, but only to face human smuggling charges that his lawyers call preposterous and vindictive.
The Trump administration has said it is trying to deport Abrego Garcia months before his trial is scheduled in Tennessee, alleging that the 30-year-old married father is a danger to the community and an MS-13 gang member. He denies the gang allegation, pleaded not guilty to smuggling charges and has asked a judge to dismiss the case on ground of vindictive prosecution. Immigration officials have said they plan to deport Abrego Garcia to Uganda after he declined an offer to be removed to Costa Rica in exchange for pleading guilty to the smuggling charges.
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Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia?
Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s story begins in his native El Salvador, but it’s become increasingly unclear where it will end.
A local gang, Barrio 18, began extorting his family for “rent money.” When he was 12, the gang threatened to take Abrego Garcia away until his father paid “all of the money that they wanted.”
Abrego Garcia eventually fled to the U.S. illegally around 2011, the year he turned 16, according to documents in his immigration case. He found work in construction.
In March 2019, Abrego Garcia went to a Home Depot seeking work as a laborer when he and three other men were detained by local police, court records say. They were suspected of being in MS-13 based on tattoos and clothing, according to the records.
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The background on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case
Abrego Garcia became a flash point in Trump’s immigration agenda after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March, despite a judge’s earlier determination that he faced a “well-founded fear” of violence there. Facing a court order, the Trump administration brought him back to the United States in June, only to detain him on human smuggling charges.
He pleaded not guilty and asked the judge to dismiss the case, claiming that it is an attempt to punish him for challenging his deportation to El Salvador. The latest filing came as a supplement to that motion to dismiss, stating that the threat to deport him to Uganda is more proof that the prosecution is vindictive.
The smuggling charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee for speeding. There were nine passengers in the car, and officers discussed among themselves their suspicions of smuggling. Abrego Garcia was allowed to continue driving with only a warning.
Abrego Garcia has an American wife and children and has lived in Maryland for years. Although he was deemed eligible for pretrial release last month, he remained in jail at the request of his attorneys, who feared the Republican administration could try to immediately deport him again if he were freed.
On Friday, Abrego Garcia returned to his family in Maryland. Video released by advocates of the reunion showed a room decorated with streamers, flowers and signs. He embraced loved ones and thanked them “for everything.”
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