The Trump administration told Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Friday it is now seeking to deport him to the tiny African kingdom of Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, according to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement email obtained by CBS News.
The email from a top ICE official noted that Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have warned he fears being persecuted or tortured in Uganda, where federal authorities threatened to deport him last month after he was detained once again by immigration officials following his release from criminal custody.
The ICE official said Abrego Garcia, through his attorneys, has also claimed fear of being harmed if deported to more than 20 countries, most of them in Latin America.
In the email, the official called the alleged claims “hard to take seriously,” but added: “Nonetheless, we hereby notify you that your new country of removal is Eswatini, Africa.”
CBS News reached out to representatives and an attorney for Abrego Garcia, asking for comment on the Trump administration’s threat to send their client to Eswatini.
Eswatini is at least the fourth possible destination that the Trump administration has floated for Abrego Garcia, a native of El Salvador who was mistakenly deported in March, held in a notorious Salvadoran prison and returned to the U.S. in June — only to face federal smuggling charges.
Africa’s sole remaining absolute monarchy, Eswatini is one of several nations that has agreed to the Trump administration’s requests to accept deportees who are not their citizens from the U.S. Earlier this year, the U.S. sent a small group of deportees from Asia and Latin America who had been convicted of violent crimes to Eswatini. Attorneys say the men are being held incommunicado in a prison there.
Abrego Garcia was released from pre-trial jail last month, but ICE almost immediately detained him during a check-in appointment with the agency in Baltimore and began processing him for deportation to Uganda. His attorneys have fought that move, and alleged the government offered to deport him to Costa Rica instead if he agreed to a plea deal in his smuggling case.
And on Thursday, federal authorities argued they could have a legal route to deport him to El Salvador a second time. A 2019 immigration court ruling barred the government from sending him to the Central American country, citing a risk of persecution by gangs. But in a filing obtained by CBS News, the government argued those legal protections would be voided if Abrego Garcia’s request to reopen his immigration court case is granted.
Despite that legal protection issued in 2019, Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador in March, which government lawyers acknowledged was an “administrative error.”
A senior Trump administration official said, “Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s lawyers are playing with fire. If their attempts to reopen his immigration case are successful, his own lawyers will have opened the door for his return to El Salvador.”
Abrego Garcia remains in ICE custody in Virginia while his lawyers fight his criminal charges and deportation proceedings. His possible deportation to Uganda was paused by a federal judge in Maryland until at least next month.
Trump administration fights Abrego Garcia’s asylum case
Meanwhile, Abrego Garcia is seeking asylum in the U.S., a legal status granted to people who have a well-founded fear of persecution in another country.
In an immigration court filing Thursday, government lawyers asked a judge not to grant Abrego Garcia’s request to reopen his immigration case so he can seek asylum or some other legal protection, like a green card based on his marriage to a U.S. citizen.
The administration argued that Abrego Garcia is not eligible for asylum and other benefits, citing his alleged affiliation with the gang MS-13, his smuggling charges and a domestic violence complaint filed by his wife. The government alleges Abrego Garcia is a member of a foreign terrorist group, since MS-13 has been classified as such by the State Department.
Abrego Garcia has strongly denied any affiliation with MS-13 and has pleaded not guilty to his smuggling charges, which his attorneys have called “vindictive and selective.” Abrego Garcia’s wife filed a protective order alleging domestic violence in 2021, but she later said she decided not to follow through with the case. Abrego Garcia was not criminally charged in the matter.
Abrego Garcia’s attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg told CBS News that if his client “is allowed a fair trial in immigration court, there’s no way he’s not going to prevail on his claim for asylum.”
“Kilmar Abrego Garcia was tortured in El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison earlier this year,” he said. “The only reason he was denied asylum in 2019 was because he did not file within one year of entering the United States, a problem which the government has now solved.”
