Trump administration has failed to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Africa

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – AUGUST 25: Kilmar Abrego Garcia speaks during a rally and prayer vigil for him before he enters a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office on August 25, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. Three days after being released, Garcia has been detained again, as the U.S. Government is threatening to deport Garcia, a Maryland construction worker from El Salvador, to Uganda after he rejected a plea deal to be charged with Human Smuggling and deported to Costa Rica. Earlier this year Garcia was wrongfully deported to the notorious anti-terrorism prison CECOT in El Salvador. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

GREENBELT, Maryland — The Trump administration has struggled to find a country willing to accept Kilmar Abrego Garcia if he is deported again from the U.S., federal court testimony and documents revealed Friday.

A senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official said efforts to secure acceptance from the African nations of Uganda and Eswatini have stalled in recent days. Meanwhile, Ghana’s foreign minister publicly ruled out taking Abrego, further narrowing options.

Abrego, a native of El Salvador, entered the U.S. illegally and lived in Maryland for more than a decade before being arrested in March and deported to a Salvadoran prison. Courts later ruled that deportation illegal, citing a 2019 immigration judge order that barred sending him back due to potential gang-related persecution.

Following the court’s decision, the Trump administration returned Abrego to the U.S. in June. Federal prosecutors also charged him with human smuggling in Tennessee, charges he denies.

The administration has indicated it intends to deport Abrego again, but his lawyers argued Friday that the government is delaying efforts in order to keep him in immigration detention and pressure him to plead guilty.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, overseeing a lawsuit filed by Abrego seeking his release, could order his release within days if she determines the administration is not making a sincere effort to find a country to accept him.

Abrego offered to accept deportation to Costa Rica in August, but his attorney, Andrew Rossman, said the administration’s focus on African countries suggests it is ignoring that option. “We now know they are 0 for 3. Three strikes and you’re out,” Rossman told the court. “They have spun the globe … to fail on purpose by selecting places that would be completely unpalatable for Mr. Abrego.”

ICE official John Schultz testified that lower-level staff mistakenly sent Abrego a notice indicating he would be sent to Ghana. “I believe the field office was just trying to get ahead of things so that, if Ghana did say yes, removal would be quicker,” he said.

Schultz confirmed that the White House played a role in choosing potential countries. An official at the Homeland Security Council suggested Uganda, but that effort also fell through. Schultz had no involvement in discussions about Costa Rica, frustrating Judge Xinis. “You come today with a witness who knows nothing about Costa Rica — I mean, less than nothing,” she said.

Under a 2001 Supreme Court ruling, immigrants generally cannot be detained for more than six months unless deportation is reasonably foreseeable. Abrego’s lawyers argue the clock began in 2019 when the immigration judge blocked his deportation to El Salvador, while the Justice Department claims it started in August 2025.

Rossman contends the time Abrego spent in prison in El Salvador should count toward immigration detention. He also accused the administration of holding Abrego “for political purposes” and to avoid contradicting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s vow that he will never be free in the U.S.

In a related case in Nashville, the judge in Abrego’s criminal proceedings scheduled a Nov. 3 hearing to consider evidence and testimony on whether charges were politically motivated in retaliation for his successful legal challenge to the Trump administration’s previous deportation attempt.

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