Attorneys Claim U.S. Government Coercing Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Accept Guilty Plea Under Threat of Deportation to Uganda
August 23, 2025 – The legal team representing Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man facing human smuggling charges, alleges that the U.S. government is attempting to pressure their client into accepting a guilty plea by threatening to deport him to Uganda if he refuses.
<pAbrego Garcia was wrongly deported in March 2025 but was subsequently returned to the United States to face federal human smuggling charges. Most recently, he was released from criminal custody in Tennessee and transferred to Maryland on Friday, August 22.
According to filings made by Abrego Garcia’s attorneys on Saturday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) informed them that their client could be deported to Uganda unless he agreed to plead guilty. This warning came after Abrego Garcia declined an earlier offer that would have allowed him to remain in jail if he accepted deportation to Costa Rica and pleaded guilty to the charges against him.
The U.S. government’s outreach to Costa Rica involved Costa Rica informing the U.S. embassy that it would accept Abrego Garcia “upon the conclusion of any criminal sentence he may serve in the U.S.,” according to ABC News. However, after Abrego Garcia rejected this proposal, the government allegedly escalated its position, now threatening deportation to Uganda, a country that appears to have little connection to him.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys assert that the government reacted to their client’s release from custody with “outrage” and quickly moved to enforce the threat of deportation to Uganda. They contend this is an attempt to coerce acceptance of a plea deal, denying Abrego Garcia his right to fully contest the charges in court.
The trial on the human smuggling indictment is scheduled to begin on January 27, 2027, giving Abrego Garcia and his legal team significant time to prepare a defense. His attorneys argue that the government’s tactics undermine fair legal process and exploit immigration enforcement mechanisms to force a conviction without trial.
This development raises questions about the intersection of criminal justice and immigration enforcement policies, with immigrant defendants potentially being leveraged with threats of deportation to countries unrelated to their origin as a form of coercion. Advocates and legal experts say such practices could set concerning precedents about prosecutorial conduct.
Abrego Garcia remains in Maryland and is scheduled to report to ICE in Baltimore on Monday, August 25, following the government’s reinstated deportation orders.