ICE Officials Now Say Abrego Garcia Could Be Deported To Mexico Or War-Torn South Sudan

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent said it has not yet been decided where Kilmar Abrego Garcia will be deported if released from a Tennessee jail, but Mexico and South Sudan could be alternatives.

Thomas Giles, an assistant director for ICE, reiterated in a Maryland federal court that the man would be detained immediately should he be released from the jail, in which he stays while waiting a trial on human smuggling charges.

Abrego Garcia could be released as soon as next Wednesday, The Associated Press reported on Thursday. However, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis is considering a request by his lawyers to send him to Maryland, a move that seeks to prevent his deportation.

Abrego Garcia, a longtime Maryland resident, was deported to El Salvador in March in violation of a 2019 immigration court order that protected him from removal to that country due to a credible fear of persecution.

He was returned to the U.S. in June after a Supreme Court order and is now in pretrial detention in Tennessee on human smuggling charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop. His attorneys argue that the Trump administration is trying to deport him before trial to avoid legal scrutiny.

The government described the March deportation earlier this week as a "one-off mistake" despite previously claiming it had been deliberate. Meanwhile, Abrego Garcías leagl team recently detailed the abuse he allegedly endured during a three-week detention at El Salvador's CECOT prison, including being ordered to kneel for nine hours straight and prevented from going to the bathroom.

Abrego Garcia has denied any gang affiliation, including to MS-13, and pleaded not guilty to the smuggling charges.

In another passage of the hearing, an attorney for Abrego Garcia asked the ICE agent how he would be treated in Mexico or South Sudan. "We're not going to send people to a country where they're going to get persecuted or tortured," Giles said.

However, White House border czar Tom Homan said this week he is not sure about the status or whereabouts of eight men recently deported to South Sudan, claiming they are no longer in U.S. custody.

"When we sign these agreements with all these countries, we make arrangements to make sure these countries are receiving these people and there's opportunities for these people. But I can't tell if we remove somebody to Sudan — they can stay there a week and leave. I don't know," Homan said.