Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: OFFICIALS from three African nations have said they won’t let the US deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to their countries, potentially frustrating the Trump administration’s plans to keep him in custody.
The rejections – two of which were revealed by a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in a Maryland courtroom last week – could lead a federal judge to order the administration to release Abrego Garcia from immigration custody for now, if she decides that his deportation does not appear imminent.
The countries – Uganda, Eswatini and Ghana – have said at various points in recent weeks that they would not allow Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man unlawfully deported to El Salvador in mid-March and later brought back to the US to face human smuggling charges, to be put on a plane and sent to their territories. Under a 2019 court order, US officials are barred from sending Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, his home country, which he fled years earlier amid threats of gang violence.
It could lead to release of Abrego Garcia from immigration custody, if the judge decides that his deportation does not appear imminent
US District Judge Paula Xinis did not rule last week on the request from Abrego Garcia to be released from the detention facility he’s being held at in Pennsylvania. But in a lengthy hearing, she appeared at times to be unconvinced that the government had shown a compelling reason to keep him detained.
The hearing was the latest episode in Abrego Garcia’s ongoing attempt to get courts to intervene in his immigration case to ensure the Trump administration doesn’t run roughshod over his due process rights months after he was wrongly deported.
