Warner on Abrego Garcia deportation case: ‘America is a better country than this’

FARMVILLE, VA. - In a video posted to X on Thursday, Sen. Warner recapped his visit to the Farmville Detention Center in Prince Edward County, where Abrego Garcia is currently being held. 

What we know:

He says that "there should be no action taken" on the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia until "due process claims are resolved." 

Kilmar Abrego Garcia's deportation

The backstory:

Abrego Garcia's case has been highly publicized. He was wrongly deported by ICE earlier this year to his birth country of El Salvador despite there being a court order in place from 2019 that barred his deportation to the country due to fear of being targeted by a local gang. In June, Abrego Garcia returned to the U.S. to face criminal charges before being released on Aug. 22 to his brother's custody. Abrego Garcia was then detained by ICE in Baltimore on Aug. 25 before being taken to the detention center. 

Abrego Garcia is now facing another deportation order, according to a post on X by FOX News' Bill Melugin.

The email to his attorney obtained by FOX News states that it is a notice that "DHS may remove your client, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, to Uganda no earlier than 72 hours from now (absent weekends)."

Earlier this month, the East African nation reached an agreement with the U.S. to accept certain deported migrants, though exact details of the arrangement were not immediately clear. Over the past few weeks, Ugandans have criticized the agreement, questioning its lack of approval from the country's parliament as well as its transparency. 

"While I can't weigh in on some of the allegations from the Trump administration, I know this: they wrongfully moved him to El Salvador, and now, in an effort to retaliate, if he doesn't plead guilty, they're threatening to send him to Uganda, where he has no ties at all," Warner said in the video. "That's not how the system works." 

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Maryland issued a court order blocking the Trump administration from deporting Abrego Garcia from the US until at least October, when an evidentiary hearing will be held. The Oct. 6 hearing is the result of an emergency habeas corpus request filed by his attorneys.  

"I also saw a number of the other detainees from a variety of countries," Sen. Warner went on in the video, describing the rest of his visit to the Farmville Detention Center. "Some didn't even know why they were there." 

What we don't know:

Warner then said that the private company that runs the facility committed to working with legislators to improve "some of the food and some of the health care," but added no further details. 

"Lord knows, with an ICE budget now bigger than the FBI, costs should not be a reason," he said. "America is a better country than this."