Kilmar Abrego Garcia faces deportation to tiny African nation Eswatini after rejecting Trump deal: report
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a suspected MS-13 gang member and El Salvadoran national, is reportedly facing deportation to Eswatini — a small, landlocked nation in Southern Africa — after turning down a plea deal from the Trump administration.
Garcia, 30, had previously been deported to El Salvador earlier this year, but was returned to the U.S. after a Supreme Court ruling. Now accused of human smuggling, he recently received an email from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) informing him of his impending removal.
According to a removal notice obtained by Fox News, Eswatini was selected after Garcia submitted a list of 22 countries he claimed he could not return to due to fears of persecution or torture. The list included nations such as Uganda, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, and Brazil.
Garcia had been offered a plea deal that would have allowed him to serve his sentence in Costa Rica, but he declined. His deportation order follows that rejection.
In March, El Salvador agreed to take Garcia into custody, placing him in the country’s high-security Terrorism Confinement Center. However, he was released back to the U.S. in June after the Supreme Court’s ruling. He was later detained at Putnam County Jail in Tennessee and then released on August 22, under electronic monitoring and home confinement in Maryland.
Following his release, DHS initially planned to deport Garcia to Uganda. With that option now off the table, authorities appear to have selected Eswatini — a country where the Trump administration has previously sent five deportees. Those removals have since faced legal challenges.
One such case involves a Jamaican national represented by the Legal Aid Society, who claims he was unlawfully sent to Eswatini despite his home country being willing to receive him — an allegation DHS denies.
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