Abrego Garcia is currently in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in Virginia after a federal judge allowed him to be released from jail ahead of a human smuggling trial against him.
This week, Judge Paula Xinis, appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland by former President Barack Obama, blocked ICE agents from deporting Abrego Garcia for the time being.
Now, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers say the illegal alien is looking to apply for asylum in the United States as he fears being sent to Uganda, the Associated Press (AP) reports:
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose case has come to encapsulate much of President Donald Trump ’s hard-line immigration agenda, wants to seek asylum in the United States, his lawyers told a federal judge Wednesday. [Emphasis added]
…
The Salvadoran national’s lawyers are fighting the deportation efforts in court, arguing he has the right to express fear of persecution and torture in Uganda. Abrego Garcia has also told immigration authorities he would prefer to be sent to Costa Rica if he must be removed from the U.S. [Emphasis added]
Abrego Garcia was deported from the United States earlier this year to his native El Salvador after he had been identified by federal law enforcement as being a member of the MS-13 gang. Abrego Garcia has denied any involvement with MS-13.
Following his deportation, House and Senate Democrats traveled to El Salvador to meet with Abrego Garcia and advocate for his release. The Trump administration returned Abrego Garcia to the United States months ago after he was charged in a multi-state human smuggling case.
Federal prosecutors accuse Abrego Garcia of working for a convicted felon who ran a human smuggling ring that took illegal aliens from the southern border to the mid-Atlantic and elsewhere.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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