Wrongly deported migrant Abrego detained again, may be sent to Uganda

By Daniel Trotta and Luc Cohen

(Reuters) -Kilmar Abrego, the migrant whose wrongful deportation to his native El Salvador made him a symbol of President Donald Trump's hardline immigration policies, was detained again by U.S. immigration officials in Baltimore on Monday and may be deported a second time, this time to Uganda. 

The Trump administration's push to deport Abrego, 30, to an African country where he has no ties is the latest twist in a saga that began in March, when U.S. authorities sent him to El Salvador. Abrego was brought back in June to face criminal charges of transporting migrants living illegally in the United States, and was released on bond on Friday. 

He has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have accused the administration of vindictive prosecution. He has denied the administration's claims that he is a gang member.

Abrego, 30, was arrested at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in downtown Baltimore, where he reported for a scheduled interview on Monday morning. His lawyers swiftly asked Greenbelt, Maryland-based U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis to prevent him from being deported again without the due process required under the U.S. Constitution. 

A hearing in the case is scheduled for 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) on Monday. 

His U.S. citizen wife, Jennifer Vasquez, and his brother Cesar accompanied Abrego to the ICE field 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," Abrego said while choking up. "Those moments will give me strength and hope to keep fighting." 

Abrego'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. Administration officials have said Trump's election victory last year gave him a mandate to drastically step up deportations. 

Abrego's lawyers have accused the administration of using a carrot-and-stick approach to try to coerce him to plead guilty to criminal charges of transporting migrants living illegally in the United States. 

According to court filings, 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. 

'COMPLETELY UNCONSTITUTIONAL'

"They're weaponizing the immigration system in a manner that is completely unconstitutional," his lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg told reporters after Abrego's detention on Monday. 

"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," Sandoval-Moshenberg said. 

Abrego, a sheet metal worker who entered the United States 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 U.S. immigration court ruling that he not be sent back to his native country due to a risk of persecution by gangs. 

The U.S. government for months took no apparent steps to bring Abrego 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 U.S. Supreme Court, to facilitate his return. 

Abrego was flown back from El Salvador in June to face the charges brought by federal prosecutors in Nashville, Tennessee. Administration officials have called him a "monster," pointing to a protective order his wife filed against him in 2021. Officials have also alleged he solicited nude 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 terrorize American citizens any longer," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement on Monday. 

Abrego was released on bond from criminal custody in Tennessee on Friday, after Nashville-based U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw ruled he was not a risk of flight or a danger to the community. 

Crenshaw wrote that there was no indication that Abrego had problems with his wife in recent years, and said the government had not proven that Abrego solicited the nude pictures. 

Abrego's lawyers have asked Crenshaw to dismiss the charges, arguing they were brought in retaliation for his having brought a lawsuit challenging the legality of his deportation to El Salvador. 

After his release on Friday, Abrego returned to a family home in Maryland after more than five months of detention, including time in a mega-prison in El Salvador known for its harsh conditions. Video posted to social media by immigrant rights advocacy organization CASA on Friday night showed him entering a room where his family was waiting, setting down a bouquet of flowers, and embracing his wife. 

PLEA DISCUSSIONS

Abrego's lawyers acknowledged they have entered plea discussions with the government to possibly avoid deportation to Uganda. 

Abrego is willing to accept refugee status in Costa Rica, Sandoval-Moshenberg told reporters. Abrego also filed a lawsuit in federal court in Maryland seeking an order for him not to be deported anywhere unless he has had the chance to contest being sent there, Sandoval-Moshenberg said.

He is covered by a standing order in Maryland preventing immigrants challenging their deportations from being immediately deported, court records showed. 

Xinis had previously ruled that authorities cannot deport Abrego to a country other than El Salvador without giving his lawyers notice of 72 hours so he could challenge his removal. 

Before Abrego's detention on Monday, he embraced his wife in the ICE field office's lobby before passing through a security checkpoint. About 45 minutes later, his wife and brother left the building without him. 

(Reporting Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California and Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Caitlin Webber, Toby Chopra, Chizu Nomiyama, Will Dunham and Noeleen Walder)