WASHINGTON/ GREENBELT, Md. — Officials from Uganda, Eswatini and Ghana have told the United States they will not accept the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, potentially undercutting the Trump administration’s effort to keep him in immigration custody and raising the prospect of his release, according to courtroom testimony Friday.
At a hearing in Maryland federal court, a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official said Uganda initially declined to receive Abrego Garcia and that Eswatini informed U.S. officials this week it would not allow him to be removed there either. Ghana has also rejected taking him, defense attorneys said. Discussions with Eswatini are “ongoing,” the ICE official added, but Judge Paula Xinis appeared unconvinced that removal was imminent.
Under a 2019 court order, the U.S. is barred from deporting Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, his home country, which he fled after gang threats. He was unlawfully deported there in March, then returned to the U.S. to face separate human-smuggling charges in Tennessee. He is currently held in immigration detention in Pennsylvania.
Xinis, an Obama appointee, did not rule Friday on Abrego Garcia’s request for release but pressed ICE on basic details of its removal plans, suggesting the government had not shown a compelling reason to continue detention if no country will accept him. If the court finds there is no “significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future,” longstanding precedent could weigh in favor of release under supervision.
Meanwhile in Nashville, a separate federal case over the criminal charges moved forward. Abrego Garcia’s attorneys told Judge Waverly Crenshaw they will seek internal communications from senior Justice Department officials, including Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, to probe whether the prosecution was improperly influenced. Prosecutors counter that the indictment decision rested solely with Tennessee’s acting U.S. attorney and that communications not tied to that decisionmaker are not discoverable.
Friday’s developments underscore the administration’s difficulty finding third countries willing to accept deportees subject to court limits on removal to their homelands. They also heighten pressure on ICE to justify continued detention as legal battles play out on two fronts — over both where Abrego Garcia can be sent and whether he should be prosecuted at all.
