Garcia, who had been freed from jail a little over 72 hours ago to await trial on human-smuggling allegations, was caught in Baltimore on Monday morning.
His legal team has now warned him that unless he pleads guilty, he will be deported to Uganda, where he has no links.
According to his lawyer, Sean Hecker, ICE authorities came in quickly after his release, giving him a harsh ultimatum: plead guilty to human-smuggling charges or risk deportation to Uganda.
The event has raised questions about how far US immigration officials are ready to go in implementing unpopular deportation procedures.
This remarkable shift occurred only days after prosecutors in Tennessee reportedly suggested a new deal: deportation to Costa Rica in return for a quick guilty plea and completion of a sentence.
Hecker describes these proposals as “spiteful prosecution,” undercutting due process by forcing Abrego Garcia to accept guilt under the threat of deportation to foreign nations.
Donald Trump’s third country deportation strategy
Abrego Garcia’s case, as reported by Bloomberg, is not isolated. It demonstrates the enduring effects of Donald Trump’s immigration policy, which prioritized the deportation of illegal migrants, convicted felons, and asylum applicants with disputed paperwork.
Under this strategy, the United States has increasingly sought agreements with other governments ready to admit persons with no direct ties to their nations.
One such arrangement is the Uganda deal, which was accepted by the Kampala administration under “specific conditions”.
It permits Washington to send selected migrants and rejected asylum applicants to Uganda, regardless of their nationality.
A similar agreement was reached with Eswatini, which aroused international outrage when it was found that violent criminals and those with major criminal histories had been moved there.
Human rights organizations have strongly opposed these practices, claiming that they constitute exploitation of smaller, less resourced states.
Critics fear that countries like Uganda, which are already confronting inadequate enforcement capability and societal hardship, are being transformed into dumping sites for migrants that the United States wants to expel.
