After a Tennessee judge released Salvadorian national Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Friday, the Trump administration is wasting no time trying to deport him to a third country.
Abrego Garcia was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials Monday morning after he arrived for check-in at the agency’s field office in Baltimore, Maryland.
Trump officials plan to begin removal proceedings to deport him again to a third country, such as Uganda, Fox News Digital reported.
It’s been a busy weekend of legal maneuvering on both sides after a federal judge released Abrego Garcia from criminal detention in Tennessee, ruling he should be free pending his human smuggling trial.
He declined to plead guilty to the federal charges in exchange for a deal to be sent to Costa Rica “where he could live freely if he remained jailed until Monday, pleaded guilty to the Tennessee human smuggling charges and served the sentence imposed by the court,” his attorneys wrote, as reported by the Tennessee Lookout on Saturday.
Abrego Garcia, cast as the “Maryland man” by Democratic politicians and media outlets, is an alleged MS-13 gang member, human smuggler and wife beater who has been at the center of controversary since he was deported to El Salvador in March.
Although two judges previously ruled he should be deported, he was mistakenly sent to his home country of El Salvador instead of a third country.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Kristi Noem posted an update on X Monday morning:
Today, ICE law enforcement arrested Kilmar Abrego Garcia and are processing him for deportation.
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…
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) August 25, 2025
“Today, @Sec_Noem announced that ICE arrested Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He will be processed for removal to Uganda,” DHS wrote. “Sanctuary politicians and the FAKE news won’t tell you the truth about Kilmar Abrego Garcia—a MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, wife beater, child predator and criminal illegal alien. We will.”
Noem criticized the release of Abrego Garcia Friday, saying, “Activist liberal judges have attempted to obstruct our law enforcement every step of the way in removing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from our country.”
The U.S. Department of Justice filed federal charges against him for human smuggling in June, and he was returned to the U.S. to face those charges. He was being held at a at the Putnam County Jail in Cookeville, Tennessee.
The charges stem from a 2022 Tennessee traffic stop case during which he was pulled over by highway patrol and had a car full of people. He told officers he was traveling from Texas to Maryland, via Missouri, to bring in people to perform construction work.
DHS released a report on the traffic stop in April. None of the people in the vehicle had luggage, while they listed the same address as Abrego Garcia, according to police records.
The Tennessee Star initially broke news of the Tennessee traffic stop, and police body cam footage indicates officers suspected he was hauling illegal immigrants for money.
Tennessee Highway Patrol contacted Biden’s FBI, who instructed them to let him go on his way. Abrego Garcia also had an expired driver’s license, but the THP let him go with a warning.
In her July order, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ruled that the U.S. government “shall restore Abrego Garcia to his ICE Order of Supervision out of the Baltimore Field Office.”
Upon his release on Friday, Abrego Garcia was allowed to returned to Maryland with the condition of wearing an ankle monitor and undergoing electronic monitoring and home detention in Maryland. Abrego Garcia was to remain in the custody of his brother in Maryland, according to his release order.
After Abrego Garcia was detained Monday, his lawyer and others held a news conference outside the ICE Field Office in Baltimore. His lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said ICE officials had declined to tell them where they were detaining Abrego Garcia prior to his removal, or tell them why they were arresting him.
“As of the last five minutes, Mr. Abrego Garcia has filed a new lawsuit in the federal district court for the District of Maryland challenging his confinement and challenging his deportation to Uganda, or to any other country unless and until he’s had a fair trial—as in, an immigration court, as well as his full appeal rights,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
The habeas petition, filed in the U.S. District Court of Maryland, was assigned to Xinis, who has presided since March over his civil case, Fox News Digital reported.
Abrego Garcia’s family, attorneys, politicians and immigration rights advocates have pushed for his release for months. The case made national headlines after several Democrat politicians traveled to El Salvador to meet with him, despite his own admission that he entered the country illegal and had known associations with MS-13 gang members.
Besides several run-ins with police in Maryland, Abrego Garcia’s wife also sought protective orders against him, accusing him of several incidents of domestic violence.
He was deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador in March, which was in violation of a 2019 court order that said he could not be sent back to his home country.
The Trump administration returned him to the U.S. and arrested him after filing the federal charges, following orders from a federal judge and from the Supreme Court that said he should be brought back to the U.S.
Abrego Garcia faces a possible second deportation, this time to Uganda. Abrego’s notice of removal indicates he is expected to be deported to Uganda as soon as Wednesday, unless his attorneys ask for a “withholding of removal” from Uganda and provide evidence on why they believe his life would be in imminent danger in the African nation.
Attorneys for Abrego have already filed a motion to dismiss the criminal charges against him, calling the case a clear example of “selective and vindictive prosecution” by the Trump administration in legal filings last week.
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan told Fox News in an interview Sunday night that Abrego Garcia was “absolutely” going to be deported from the U.S., and said Uganda is “on the table” as the third country of removal.
The East African nation reached a deal with the U.S. last week to accept migrants deported by the Trump administration.
“We have an agreement with them. It’s on a table, absolutely,” Homan said in an interview on “The Big Weekend Show” Sunday evening.
“He is absolutely going to be deported,” Homan reiterated, adding that Abrego Garcia “can enjoy the little time he has with his family. And for the person who says we’re not going to separate family, his family can go with him, because he’s leaving,” per Fox News Digital.
