Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was wrongly deported to El Salvador and later brought back to the US to face federal criminal charges, has renewed his bid for asylum in the United States as the Trump administration’s effort to deport him to Uganda intensifies.
The request Monday to revisit his asylum application could have the impact of further delaying a potential deportation by the administration. Should an immigration judge grant the request to revisit his asylum claims, officials would be barred under federal law from removing him from the US pending resolution of his renewed asylum application.
Justice Department attorneys have separately acknowledged in court papers that they would let Abrego Garcia’s request to revisit his asylum claims play out before they proceed with deporting him. Officials are already barred from deporting him for now under other court-imposed orders.
“If the motion is granted then it’s been a sea change. We’re literally in a different ocean,” a source familiar with Abrego Garcia’s case told CNN.
Being granted asylum by an immigration judge would have the benefit of allowing Abrego Garcia to remain in the US.
Abrego Garcia, who fled El Salvador years ago to escape gang violence, first applied for asylum in the US in 2019. But an immigration judge denied the application that year, ruling that since he hadn’t filed it within 12 months of entering the US in 2012, it couldn’t be granted.
But the judge did grant Abrego Garcia what’s known as a withholding of removal, which was intended to prohibit officials from deporting him back to El Salvador. That order was violated earlier this year when Abrego Garcia, whom Trump administration officials have accused of being a member of the gang MS-13, was sent by US officials to a mega-prison in El Salvador, where his attorneys say he was tortured.
He was brought back to the US in June to face federal human smuggling charges, and the Trump administration has said in recent days that it wants to re-deport him, this time to a third country, such as Uganda. Those plans prompted a fresh legal challenge from Abrego Garcia that is meant to slow down the administration’s efforts and ensure his due process rights aren’t violated again by immigration officials.
A scheduling hearing in that case is set for Wednesday morning.
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