BALTIMORE — Hundreds of protesters gathered at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore early Monday for a prayer vigil for the wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the Trump administration aims to re-deport to Uganda unless he pleads guilty to Justice Department charges.

As Abrego Garcia arrived for his Monday ICE check-in at the office, he was arrested and detained, one of his immigration lawyers, Simon Y. Sandoval-Moshenberg, told the crowd. 

The crowd shouted “Shame!”

Sandoval-Moshenberg added that the ICE officials would not answer questions about where Abrego Garcia would be detained. 

“The only reason that they’ve chosen to take him into detention is to punish him,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said outside the office. 

Television cameras and photographers follow Kilmar Abrego Garcia as his family, friends and other supporters walk him up the steps to the George H. Fallon Federal Building, where the ICE detention facility is located in Baltimore, on Aug. 25, 2025.  (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)  

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement to States Newsroom that “ICE law enforcement arrested Kilmar Abrego Garcia and are processing him for deportation.”

DHS said that ICE has placed Abrego Garcia in removal proceedings to Uganda, which has agreed to accept deportees from the United States.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys quickly filed a habeas corpus petition suit in a Maryland district court, where Judge Paula Xinis, who also ordered the Trump administration to return Abrego Garica after his wrongful deportation, has barred immigration officials from removing Abrego Garcia from the United States until 4 p.m. Eastern Wednesday. A habeas corpus petition allows immigrants to challenge their detention.

Sandoval-Moshenberg said Abrego Garcia would accept refugee status that has been offered by Costa Rica’s government, but would not plead guilty to the charges. 

‘I am free and have been reunited with my family’

As Abrego Garcia walked into his ICE check-in with his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, he was greeted by cheers from hundreds of protesters. 

In Spanish, Abrego Garcia thanked those who attended.

“I always want you to remember that today, I can say with pride, that I am free and have been reunited with my family,” he said. 

Immigrant rights activists from the advocacy group CASA shielded the family and the attorneys as they entered the field office. 

Protesters hold up a sign of support for Kilmar Abrego Garcia outside the ICE office in Baltimore where he was arrested on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)

Over the weekend, attorneys for Abrego Garcia’s criminal case in Nashville said in court filings that the Trump administration is trying to force the Maryland man to plead guilty to human smuggling charges by promising to remove him to Costa Rica if he does so, and threatening to deport him to Uganda if he refuses. 

Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty and was released Friday to await trial in January on charges he took part in a long-running conspiracy to smuggle immigrants without legal status across the United States. 

His attorneys received a letter from ICE that informed them of his pending deportation to Uganda and instructed him to report to the ICE facility in Baltimore for a check-in. 

Sandoval-Moshenberg said that Monday’s check-in with ICE was supposed to be an interview but “clearly that was false.”

Sandoval-Moshenberg said the new lawsuit was filed early Monday in the District Court for the District of Maryland challenging Abrego Garcia’s potential removal to the East African country, or any third country, while his immigration case is pending. 

“The fact that they’re holding Costa Rica as a carrot and using Uganda as a stick to try to coerce him to plead guilty to a crime is such clear evidence that they’re weaponizing the immigration system in a matter that is completely unconstitutional,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said. 

Trump mass deportations in spotlight

The Supreme Court in April ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia, who was unlawfully deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador, his home country.  An immigration judge had granted him removal protections in 2019 because it was likely he would face violence if returned. 

The case has put the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation tactics in the national spotlight as well as the White House’s clash with the judicial branch as the president aims to carry out his plans of mass deportation. 

On Friday, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys moved to dismiss the case against him because of the coordination from Homeland Security and the Justice Department to force a guilty plea from him. 

“There can be only one interpretation of these events,” the lawyers wrote. “The (Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security) and ICE are using their collective powers to force Mr. Abrego (Garcia) to choose between a guilty plea followed by relative safety, or rendition to Uganda, where his safety and liberty would be under threat.”

Another judge in Maryland had earlier ruled that ICE must give Abrego Garcia 72 hours of notice before removing him to a third country.  

Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who traveled to El Salvador to meet with Abrego Garcia while he was detained there, criticized the move by the Trump administration to re-deport him to Uganda. 

“The federal courts and public outcry forced the Administration to bring Ábrego García back to Maryland, but Trump’s cronies continue to lie about the facts in his case and they are engaged in a malicious abuse of power as they threaten to deport him to Uganda – to block his chance to defend himself against the new charges they brought,” he said in a Sunday statement. “As I told Kilmar and his wife Jennifer, we will stay in this fight for justice and due process because if his rights are denied, the rights of everyone else are put at risk.”

Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md.,  speaks during a rally on Aug. 25, 2025, in support of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is standing behind Ivey outside of the George H. Fallon Federal Building, where the ICE detention facility is located in Baltimore (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)

Maryland Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey, who represents the district where Abrego Garcia’s family lives, attended Monday’s rally. He slammed the Trump administration for moving to again deport Abrego Garcia.

“This started with a mistake,” he said. “They knew it was illegal. Instead of acknowledging it and bringing him back, they said, ‘We can’t bring him back.’ They lied.”

The Trump administration repeatedly stated in court that because Abrego Garica was in El Salvador, he was no longer in U.S. custody and could not be brought back despite court orders.

Wrongly deported in March

Abrego Garcia was wrongly deported in March and returned to the U.S. in June to face the charges filed by the Justice Department in May.

While Abrego Garica was at the notorious prison in El Salvador known as El Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT, he detailed how he was beaten and psychologically tortured.

Because of his 2019 deportation protections, the Trump administration either had to challenge the withholding of removal or deport Abrego Garcia to a third country that would accept him. 

His attorneys in the Tennessee case attached the agreement with the government of Costa Rica to accept Abrego Garcia’s removal in Saturday court filings. 

“The Government of Costa Rica intends to provide refugee status or residency to Mr. Abrego Garcia upon his transfer to Costa Rica,” according to the agreement. “The Government of Costa Rica assures the Government of the United States of America that, consistent with that lawful immigration status and Costa Rican law, it does not intend to detain Mr. Abrego Garcia upon his arrival in Costa Rica.”

In that filing, the Trump administration late Thursday agreed to remove Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica if he remained in custody until Monday, pleaded guilty to the DOJ charges and served the sentence imposed.

Selah Torralba, an advocacy manager for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said at Monday’s rally outside the ICE facility that she pushed for Abrego Garcia’s release while he was detained in Tennessee.

“After spending close to three months brutalized in a place that he should never have been sent to begin with, and another three months imprisoned in a state that is not his own, Kilmar was joyfully reunited with his family and children this weekend,” she said. “But it is impossible to celebrate that joy without acknowledging the cruel reality that our communities have known for far too long.”

Ariana Figueroa covers the nation's capital for States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. Her areas of coverage include politics and policy, lobbying, elections and campaign finance.

William J. Ford has reported for more than 25 years on local, county and state politics. Before Maryland Matters, he spent nearly 10 years covering municipalities, regional news and occasional news features with sports angles at The Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He wrote for Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, and was a reporter for seven years with The Washington Informer, covering local politics and other D.C.-area topics. He often appears on local radio and TV programs to discuss Maryland politics.

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