A federal judge has temporarily blocked the deportation to Uganda of a Salvadoran man at the centre of a row over US President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported to El Salvador in March and then sent back to the United States, was arrested for a second time in Baltimore by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on X.
The 30-year-old, who was released last week from a jail in Tennessee, where he is facing human smuggling charges and allowed to go home to Maryland pending trial, "will be processed for removal to Uganda," the Department of Homeland Security said.
Lawyers for Mr Garcia immediately filed a lawsuit contesting his deportation and District Judge Paula Xinis temporarily blocked his removal from the country while she holds further hearings on his case.
Mr Garcia was required to check in with ICE in Baltimore today as one of the conditions of his release.
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Mr Garcia's lawyers, told a crowd of supporters outside the ICE field office that his client was immediately taken into custody when he turned up for the appointment.
"Shame, shame," chanted the protestors, who were holding signs reading "Free Kilmar" and "Remove Trump".
The attempt to deport Mr Garcia to Uganda adds a new twist to a saga that became a test case for Mr Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration and, critics say, his trampling of the law.
Mr Garcia, a sheet metal worker who entered the US without permission, had been living in Maryland with his wife, their child and two of her children when he was arrested and sent to El Salvador.
He was deported despite a 2019 US immigration court ruling that he not be sent back to his native country due to a risk of persecution by gangs.
He was one of more than 200 people sent to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison in March as part of Mr Trump's crackdown on undocumented migrants.
But Justice Department lawyers admitted that he had been wrongly deported due to an "administrative error".
He was returned to US soil only to be detained again in Tennessee on human smuggling charges.
Mr Garcia denies any wrongdoing, while the Trump administration alleges he is a violent MS-13 gang member involved in smuggling of undocumented migrants.
The case has become emblematic of Mr Trump's crackdown on illegal migration.
Right-wing supporters praise the Republican president's toughness.
But legal scholars and human rights advocates have criticised what they say is a haphazard rush to deport people without even a court hearing, in violation of basic US law.
MrGarcia's wife, Jennifer Vasquez, who is a US citizen, and his brother Cesar accompanied him to the ICE office, where a crowd of supporters greeted him with chants of "Si se puede" - Spanish for "Yes we can".
"When I was detained, I always remembered beautiful moments with my family, like going to the park or going to the trampoline with my children," Mr Garcia said.
"Those moments will give me strength and hope to keep fighting," he added.
Mr Garcia's lawyers have said the administration's handling of the case is indicative of the Republican president's push to expand executive power in immigration matters at the expense of due process.
Officials said Mr Trump's election victory last year gave him a mandate to drastically step up deportations.
Mr Garcia's lawyers accused the administration of using a carrot-and-stick approach to try to coerce him to plead guilty to charges of transporting migrants living illegally in the US.
According to court documents, the administration had offered to deport him to Costa Rica - a Spanish-speaking country in Central America, like El Salvador - if he agreed to change his plea to guilty, but plans to deport him to Uganda if he does not.
He declined the offer.
"They're weaponising the immigration system in a manner that is completely unconstitutional," Mr Sandoval-Moshenberg told reporters after Mr Garcia's detention.
"The government is far more interested in throwing around their weight and demonstrating what they think is their power to do whatever they want, whenever they want, to whoever they want - that's clearly far more important to them than any particular outcome in this case," he added.
The US government for months took no apparent steps to bring Mr Garcia back from El Salvador despite an administration official's acknowledgement that his deportation had been an "administrative error" and a judge's order, later affirmed by the US Supreme Court, to facilitate his return.
Mr Garcia was brought back in June to face criminal charges of transporting migrants living illegally in the US and was released on bond on Friday.
Administration officials have called him a "monster", pointing to a protective order his wife filed against him in 2021.
Officials have also alleged that he solicited naked photographs of a minor.
"President Trump is not going to allow this illegal alien, who is an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser and child predator to terrorise American citizens any longer," the US Homeland Security Secretary said in a statement.
Mr Garcia was released on bond from criminal custody in Tennessee on Friday, after a judge ruled that he was not a flight risk or a danger to the community.
The judge wrote that there was no indication that he had problems with his wife in recent years and the government had not proven that he solicited the pictures.
Mr Garcia's lawyers have asked for the dismissal of the charges, arguing that they were brought in retaliation for the filing of a case challenging the legality of his deportation to El Salvador.
After his release on Friday, he returned to a family home in Maryland after more than five months of detention, including time in a prison in El Salvador known for its harsh conditions.
Video posted to social media by immigrant rights advocacy organisation CASA showed him entering a room where his family was waiting and embracing his wife.
Plea discussions to avoid Uganda deportation
Mr Garcia's lawyers acknowledged that they have entered plea discussions with the government to possibly avoid deportation to Uganda.
Mr Sandoval-Moshenberg told reporters that his client is willing to accept refugee status in Costa Rica.
Mr Garcia also filed a federal court action in Maryland seeking an order for him not to be deported anywhere unless he has had the chance to contest being sent there, the lawyer said.
He is covered by a standing order in Maryland preventing immigrants challenging their deportations from being immediately deported, court records showed.
A judge had previously ruled that authorities cannot deport Mr Garcia to a country other than El Salvador without giving his lawyers 72 hours notice so that he could challenge his removal.
Accreditation Reuters/AFP
