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KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA LATEST: Conflicting reports about release from jail
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is expected to be released from a Tennessee jail Friday.
WASHINGTON - Kilmar Abrego Garcia may be deported to Uganda in just a few days time, FOX News reports.
The Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador back in March was just released from jail on Friday after months of turmoil.
THE LATEST UPDATE: Kilmar Abrego Garcia offered deportation to Costa Rica for guilty plea: court documents
New Deportation Order
What's being reported:
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)."
The notice lists the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as the agencies involved in the decision.
Abrego Garcia Released from Jail
What we know:
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was released from a Tennessee jail and is en route to his family in Maryland, his lawyer confirmed.
The release marks the closest to freedom Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been since his wrongful deportation to a notorious El Salvador prison in March.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys said in court filings Tuesday that a private security firm will transport him from Tennessee to Maryland upon his release.
READ MORE: Kilmar Abrego Garcia released from jail Friday, lawyer confirms
Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia?
The backstory:
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a 29-year-old El Salvadorian national. He fled his home country and came to the U.S. when he was 16. He has since lived in Maryland. He has three children and a wife, Jennifer Vasquez.
On March 12, Abrego Garcia was arrested in Baltimore after working a shift as a sheet metal apprentice and picking up his 5-year-old son, who has autism and other disabilities, from his grandmother’s house, according to his lawyers.
He was then sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT which activists say is rife with abuses. Three days later, he was deported.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement say they removed him to a Salvadoran prison over a 2019 accusation that he was in the MS-13 gang.
Abrego Garcia's ties to MS-13 were never proven and he has repeatedly denied being a gang member. His lawyers argue that the U.S. government "has never produced an iota of evidence" that he is affiliated with MS-13 or any other street gang.
His eventual expulsion to El Salvador violated a U.S. immigration judge’s order in 2019 that shielded him from deportation to his native country. The judge ruled that Abrego Garcia had credible fears of being killed if he returned to El Salvador.
Abrego-Garcia has no criminal record in the U.S. outside of a few traffic violations. He had regularly checked in with immigration authorities.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials later admitted in a court filing that his deportation was due to an "administrative error" but the administration has persisted in its efforts to have him removed from the country.
When will he be removed?
What's next:
The circumstances surrounding Abrego Garcia's removal are not yet clear, and federal officials have not released any details on when, or how they plan to do this.
It's also not clear why Uganda was chosen as the nation Abrego Garcia will be deported to.
Abrego Garcia's attorneys will likely fight the court order.