Kilmar Ábrego García reported to the immigration authority ICE in Baltimore on Monday for an interview. In connection with this, he was detained, according to media reports in the USA – the latest in many twists in the 30-year-old's battle against American authorities.
The only reason they detained him is because they want to punish him, says his lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg to CBS News.
Construction worker Ábrego García, who in 2011 entered the USA illegally, has become the face of President Donald Trump's tough migration policy. In March this year, he was deported to a notorious prison in his home country El Salvador, despite a judge in 2019 having given him an American residence permit due to threats from criminal gangs in his home country. After numerous legal twists, he – to the great annoyance of the Trump administration – was allowed to return home in June, but was then faced with allegations of human trafficking. Ábrego García's lawyers have dismissed the allegations as "absurd and vindictive".
The Trump administration claims that the 30-year-old, who is married to an American citizen, is a member of the criminal gang M-13 and thus constitutes "a danger to the USA". He has denied the gang allegations and denied human trafficking.
On Saturday, Ábrego García is said to have been offered an agreement that involved deportation to Costa Rica, which he, according to CBS News, rejected. Then he was instead informed that he may be deported to Uganda, with which the USA recently signed a migration agreement.
