Trump administration has failed to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Africa

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Politico

10/10/2025 07:56 PM EDT


GREENBELT, Maryland — The Trump administration has made haphazard and, so far, ineffectual attempts to find a country willing to accept Kilmar Abrego Garcia if he’s deported again from the U.S., according to testimony and evidence presented in federal court here Friday. A senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official testified that efforts to get the African countries of Uganda and Eswatini to accept the high-profile deportee have foundered in recent days. Another potential destination, Ghana, also seemed to fizzle Friday as that country’s foreign minister said unequivocally on X that Ghana would not agree to receive Abrego.

Abrego is originally from El Salvador. He entered the U.S. illegally and lived in Maryland for more than a decade before he was arrested in March and deported to a notorious Salvadoran prison. Courts declared that deportation illegal because it violated a 2019 order from an immigration judge who barred the U.S. from sending him there due to potential persecution by a local gang.

The Trump administration returned Abrego to the U.S. in June under court order. Federal prosecutors simultaneously charged him with human smuggling in Tennessee — charges Abrego denies. The administration, in the meantime, has said it wants to deport Abrego again, this time to some other country. But Abrego’s lawyers argued during Friday’s hearing that the administration is dragging its feet in those deportation efforts in order to keep Abrego in immigration jail and pressure him to plead guilty.

The meager and unsuccessful deportation efforts could lead to Abrego being released from immigration detention within days, if U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis concludes the government hasn’t shown it’s making a sincere and substantial effort to find a destination for Abrego.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/10/kilmar-abrego-garcia-deportations-africa-00604195