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Judge Temporarily Halts Uganda Deportation After ICE Detains Kilmar Abrego Garcia in Baltimore

The case now turns on whether a court will curb the administration’s use of third‑country removals following a plea‑linked offer of resettlement in Costa Rica.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia holds wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura's hand as he appears for a check-in at the ICE Baltimore field office in Maryland on Aug. 25, 2025.
Jennifer Vasquez Sura, front left, wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, attends a protest rally at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, to support Kilmar Abrego Garciab. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - AUGUST 25: Kilmar Abrego Garcia (C) and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura (Center Right) enter a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office on August 25, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. The U.S. Government is threatening to deport Garcia, a Maryland construction worker from El Salvador, to Uganda after he rejected a plea deal to be charged with Human Smuggling and deported to Costa Rica. Earlier this year Garcia was wrongfully deported to a notorious anti-terrorism prison CECOT in El Salvador. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Jennifer Vasquez Sura, left, hugs her husband Kilmar Abrego Garcia at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Overview

  • ICE detained Abrego Garcia during a scheduled check‑in in Baltimore, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said he was being processed for deportation.
  • Federal communications and court filings indicate the government plans to remove him to Uganda, a country where he has no ties, after he declined a plea offer tied to resettlement in Costa Rica.
  • Judge Paula Xinis issued a temporary order blocking immediate removal and set up further proceedings to determine whether he can contest where the government seeks to send him.
  • His lawyers filed emergency litigation alleging coercion, saying officials used Costa Rica as a carrot for a guilty plea and threatened Uganda if he fought the criminal case; his team now says he would accept Costa Rica without a plea.
  • Abrego Garcia, who won protection from deportation to El Salvador in 2019 and was wrongfully sent there in March, has pleaded not guilty to human‑smuggling charges in Tennessee as the administration’s disputed MS‑13 allegations continue to face pushback.