Kilmar Abrego García’s lawyers say threat to deport him to Uganda is coercion

The night before Kilmar Abrego García was set to be released from a Tennessee jail, federal prosecutors urged him to strike a deal: Plead guilty to two counts of human smuggling, serve his sentence, and be deported to Costa Rica, a tropical, Spanish-speaking refuge regarded as the safest country in Central America.

When he declined the offer in favor of awaiting trial with his family in Maryland, officials threatened to deport him within days to Uganda, an African nation to which the State Department has discouraged travel because of the ongoing risk of terror attacks, his lawyers wrote in a filing Saturday detailing their account of those exchanges.

Abrego has until Monday morning, when he must report to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Baltimore office, to decide whether to take the Costa Rica deal, “or else that offer will be off the table forever,” his lawyers wrote.

Lawyers for Abrego described the government’s “last-ditch” offer in a court filing Saturday, calling it another example of the Trump administration’s “drive for retribution” against the sheet-metal apprentice and an attempt to coerce him into pleading guilty. Abrego sued after immigration officers illegally deported him to a megaprison in his native El Salvador, and the Supreme Court ordered the government to facilitate his return. They complied, but only after securing an indictment against him on smuggling charges.

On Saturday, Abrego’s lawyers repeated their request that U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. dismiss the criminal charges on grounds that the government is waging a “vindictive and selective” prosecution of the undocumented immigrant. His defense team argued that the departments of Justice, Homeland Security and ICE were attempting to punish him.

“There can be only one interpretation of these events: the DOJ, DHS, and ICE 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,” his lawyers wrote. “Mr. Abrego has previously explained that this case was part of a larger strategy to retaliate against him for challenging his illegal deportation to El Salvador.”

“These latest moves punish Mr. Abrego further,” they added.

Saturday’s court filing revealed the secret plea negotiations in Abrego’s case, which captured international attention after the Trump administration admitted to mistakenly removing him to a prison where deported migrants were shackled, shaved and placed behind bars even though many had no criminal record. In July, Abrego’s lawyers said in a court filing that he and nearly 300 others sent to the prison were severely beaten and forced to remain on their knees for hours after arriving.

Officials with DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In a statement, a Justice Department spokesman said Abrego can plead guilty “and accept responsibility” or stand trial before a jury.

“Either way, we will hold Abrego Garcia accountable and protect the American people,” Chad Gilmartin said.

A federal official with direct knowledge of the case, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the plea talks had been ongoing for weeks and that both sides had appeared close to an agreement. Abrego was interested in pleading guilty to avoid a long sentence and to be deported to a country of his choosing, the official said. If he does not plead guilty and ICE follows through on its threats to deport Abrego to Uganda, the case against him would likely be dropped.

Abrego’s lawyers said they had been engaged in “preliminary plea discussions” with the government, which they said proposed that he plead guilty to all counts “in exchange for a promise to be deported to a safe country in the Western Hemisphere” where he would have immigration status and “be at liberty.”

“Mr. Abrego has had little choice but to participate in those discussions, because of the fear that the government would do exactly what it has now expressly proposed to do, and deport him somewhere far more dangerous absent his agreement to plead guilty,” his lawyers wrote Saturday.

On Thursday, Costa Rica’s security minister Mario E. Zamora wrote to the U.S. Embassy in that country offering to accept Abrego after he completes his criminal sentence and promising to ensure he is free to go and will not be forcibly removed to El Salvador, where an immigration judge ruled in 2019 that he would be at risk. Zamora declined to comment on the letter.

Also on Thursday, Uganda’s foreign minister announced that the country would accept U.S. deportees, though it said it would not accept those with criminal records, adding confusion to the U.S. government’s threat.

At exactly 4 p.m. Friday — roughly an hour after Abrego was released from Putnam County Jail in Tennessee — Charles Wall, principal legal adviser to ICE, sent an email to Abrego’s attorneys informing them that he must report to the agency’s Baltimore field office on Monday.

One minute later, Wall sent another email notifying Abrego’s lawyers that DHS was considering deporting him to Uganda as soon as the middle of next week. Defense lawyers attached both messages to Saturday’s filing.

Though the government has called Abrego’s initial deportation in March an “isolated error,” officials stonewalled judicial orders for months requiring them to facilitate Abrego’s return to the United States. The criminal case against him stems from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee but no charges were filed at the time. Prosecutors allege Abrego is an MS-13 gang leader and prolific smuggler in a ring that illegally transported thousands of undocumented workers across the country. He has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers and family deny that he is involved with any gang.

Abrego’s release from criminal custody on Friday — after more than five months’ incarceration — came because of a pair of court orders requiring his release and return to Maryland, where his family has lived for about a decade, while he awaits trial.

A judge in Maryland also barred ICE from immediately taking him into custody and ordered authorities to give him at least 72 hours’ notice before deporting him to a country other than his native El Salvador.

A criminal trial on the migrant smuggling charges in Tennessee had been scheduled for January, and Crenshaw has ordered prosecutors to respond by Sept. 2 to Abrego’s request that the case be dismissed.