Kilmar Abrego Garcia walks, as he has been released from the Putnam County Jail in Cookville, Tennessee, U.S., August 22, 2025.
Seth Herald | Reuters
U.S. immigration officials have notified Kilmar Abrego Garcia of their intent to deport him to Uganda, his attorneys said in a Saturday filing that accuses the government of pressuring Abrego Garcia to accept a plea deal.
The move comes after Abrego Garcia, who in March was wrongfully deported to an infamous prison in El Salvador, was released from a jail near Nashville, Tennessee on Friday. He had been held there since he was returned to the United States in June to face federal human smuggling charges, which he denies.
In the new filing, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers say that the Trump administration offered on Thursday to deport him to Costa Rica, after serving any sentence imposed by the court, if he agreed to remain in jail until Monday and plead guilty to both counts in the criminal indictment.
Abrego Garcia declined to prolong his stay. His attorneys write that “within minutes of his release” on Friday, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement representative informed them that “the government intended to deport Mr. Abrego to Uganda,” ordering him to report to ICE’s office in Baltimore on Monday morning.
His attorneys allege that the Trump administration is effectively forcing Abrego Garcia to choose between pleading guilty and being deported to Costa Rica, or being deported to Uganda.
“On Friday evening, the government informed Mr. Abrego that he has until first thing Monday morning—precisely when he must report to ICE’s Baltimore Field Office—to accept a plea in exchange for deportation to Costa Rica, or else that offer will be off the table forever,” his attorneys say.
“There can be only one interpretation of these events: the DOJ, DHS, and ICE are are using their collective powers to force Mr. Abrego to choose between a guilty plea followed by relative safety, or rendition to Uganda, where his safety and liberty would be under threat,” Abrego Garcia’s lawyers write.
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His attorneys say in the filing that the administration’s threat of deportation to Uganda supports their motion to dismiss the smuggling charges on account of vindictive and selective prosecution.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the new filing.
Abrego Garcia was detained by ICE on March 12 and deported to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador three days later in what the Trump administration has since called an “administrative error.”
A U.S. judge in 2019 barred Abrego Garcia from being deported to El Salvador because of concerns that he would be persecuted there.
Abrego Garcia’s case has become a flashpoint of the Trump administration’s strict immigration playbook. The administration has alleged that Abrego Garcia has ties to the notorious MS-13 gang, an accusation that he denies.
A trial on the federal human smuggling charges is scheduled for January.