Video: 'You would think we deported a candidate for father of the year'

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News4 and Telemundo 44 were first to report Abrego was detained on March 12 in College Park and deported under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, though he had the protected status of withholding of removal since 2019.​

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) picked up Abrego March 12 near IKEA in College Park. According to his wife, he had just left the house with his young son and was heading to the bus stop to pick up his older kids.​

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The following weekend, Abrego's wife said, El Salvador’s president posted a video to X that showed her husband being frog walked by guards in the notorious Salvadoran prison CECOT. His wife had no idea where he was until she recognized him in the video. She also recognized his distinctive tattoos in a photograph....​

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His deportation violated that "withholding of removal" status, a U.S. immigration judge’s order in 2019 that shields Abrego from deportation to El Salvador because he likely faces threats of gang violence there....​

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Then, facing mounting pressure and a U.S. Supreme Court order, the Trump administration returned Abrego Garcia to the U.S. in June, but charged him with human smuggling....​

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His attorneys have called the smuggling charges “preposterous.”​

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A court filing shared with News4's Paul Wagner reveals that the Trump administration offered Abrego a deal in which they would send him to Costa Rica if he pleaded guilty to both counts in the indictment against him.​

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Then, when Abrego was released, the administration told his lawyers he would be sent to Uganda.​

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"On Friday evening, the government informed Mr. Abrego that he has until first thing Monday morning —precisely when he must report to ICE’s Baltimore Field Office — to accept a plea in exchange for deportation to Costa Rica, or else that offer will be off the table forever."​

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The warning to Abrego was the result of a court order that ICE must give immigrants 72 hours notice before being removed to third countries.​

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On Friday afternoon, government attorneys notified Abrego Garcia to report to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement custody in Baltimore on Monday, and that he could be sent to Uganda “no earlier than 72 hours from now (absent weekends),” according to a pair of letters attached by Abrego Garcia’s lawyers to the filing.

Attorneys for Abrego Garcia argued that the efforts show both the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security were “working in lockstep to coerce Mr. Abrego into accepting a guilty plea,” calling the efforts “vindictive” and asking for the case to be dismissed.
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It was the second time that Mr. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have sought to hold the Trump administration accountable over its handling of his expulsion to El Salvador and its aftermath.

Lawyers for Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the immigrant who was wrongfully expelled to El Salvador in March, accused the Justice Department on Tuesday of vindictive prosecution for bringing a criminal case against him after he and his lawyers fought his deportation.

The accusations, made in a 35-page filing in Federal District Court in Nashville, amounted to an effort by Mr. Abrego Garcia to call out the behavior of the administration, which has been going after him in one form or another for nearly five months.

In a reminder of the government’s many missteps in the case, Mr. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers pointed out that Trump officials first removed him from the United States in violation of a court order. They added that instead of taking the traditional path and quickly returning him, the White House “began a public campaign to punish Mr. Abrego for daring to fight back, culminating in the criminal investigation” that led to his indictment.​