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On Day of His Release, Trump Administration Threatens to Deport Ábrego García to Uganda
"Just spiteful evil for the sake of it," fumed one observer.
Aug 23, 2025
On the same day he was released from federal custody, the Trump administration on Friday informed Kilmar Ábrego García—a Maryland man wrongfully deported to a notorious Salvadoran prison rife with abuse—that it may deport him to the East African nation of Uganda.
Ábrego García, a Salvadoran national who entered the US without authorization when he was a teenager, was released Friday from a jail near Nashville, Tennessee, where he had been held since June following his errant deportation to El Salvador and imprisonment in the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) super-maximum security prison.
According to a notice sent by a US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official to Ábrego García's attorneys on Friday, "DHS may remove your client... to Uganda no earlier than 72 hours from now."
US District Judge Paula Xinis last month issued a ruling barring the Trump administration from immediately arresting Ábrego García upon his release and requiring the government to provide three business days' notice if US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intended to initiate deportation proceedings against him.
ICE directed Ábrego García to report to the agency's Baltimore field office on Monday morning.
The Associated Press reported Saturday that the Trump administration decide to pursue deportation of Ábrego García to Uganda after he declined an offer to be sent to Costa Rica if he pleaded guilty to human smuggling charges related to his alleged transportation of undocumented immigrants in Tennessee in 2022.
Uganda is one of four African nations—the others are Eswatini, Rwanda, and South Sudan—that have agreed to take third-country nationals deported from the US.
Noting that Ábrego García "has no connections to Uganda," Washington Monthly contributor David Atkins accused the Trump administration of "just spiteful evil for the sake of it."
Ábrego García was deported to CECOT in March after the Trump administration claimed without credible evidence that he was a gang member. He was one of more than 200 people deported to CECOT without due process. The father of three said he was subjected to beatings and "psychological torture" at the prison.
Although acknowledging wrongfully deporting Ábrego García, the Trump administration argued in court that it lacked jurisdiction to order his return to the United States. However, Xinis—who called Ábrego García's deportation "wholly lawless"—on April 4 ordered the administration to facilitate his stateside return.
As the administration balked, the US Supreme Court intervened, affirming Xinis' order in an April 10 ruling. Ábrego García was finally returned to the US in June, only to be arrested for alleged human smuggling. He pleaded not guilty and asked the court to dismiss the charges against him, contending they are retaliation for challenging his deportation to El Salvador.
In a court filing, Ábrego García's lawyers said their client is being subjected to "vindictive and selective prosecution" by the Trump administration.
"There can be only one interpretation of these events: the [Department of Justice], DHS, and ICE are using their collective powers to force Mr. Ábrego to choose between a guilty plea followed by relative safety, or rendition to Uganda, where his safety and liberty would be under threat," the attorneys wrote.
"It is difficult to imagine a path the government could have taken that would have better emphasized its vindictiveness," they added. "This case should be dismissed."
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Kilmar Abrego Garcia is 'Free' From Custody, En Route to Family in Maryland
He now awaits trial in what his lawyers argue is a "vindictive prosecution" by the Justice Department.
Aug 22, 2025
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man whom the Trump administration wrongfully deported in violation of a judge's order earlier this year, was released from custody in Tennessee on Friday.
"Today, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is free," his attorney, Sean Hecker, said. "He is presently en route to his family in Maryland, after being unlawfully arrested and deported, and then imprisoned, all because of the government's vindictive attack on a man who had the courage to fight back against the administration's continuing assault on the rule of law. He is grateful that his access to American courts has provided meaningful due process."
The Trump administration acknowledged that its deportation of Garcia to languish in a prison camp in El Salvador in March was the result of an "administrative error." But it fought to keep him there based on unsubstantiated charges that he was a member of the Salvadoran gang MS-13, even after the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that the administration must facilitate his return.
Abrego Garcia was one of more than 200 people deported to the CECOT prison without trial—the vast majority of whom were found to have never been convicted of or even charged with a crime. While there, he says he endured beatings and psychological torture before being brought back to the United States in June.
The Justice Department hit him with charges for human smuggling, which his lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg has described as "preposterous" and a way for the Trump administration to save face after an egregious miscarriage of justice. Nearly a month after a judge ordered his release from custody, Abrego Garcia is now heading back to Maryland, where he will await trial.
His lawyers argue that the DOJ "has engaged in a vindictive prosecution, seeking to penalize Abrego Garcia for asserting his rights, rather than accepting an unjust outcome."
In a motion to dismiss the case filed this week, the attorneys argued that "such tactics are inconsistent with principles of fairness and justice, and that the prosecution should be dismissed."
As evidence of this, his lawyers have cited a claim from a former Justice Department lawyer who says he was fired after refusing to file a misleading brief claiming Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13.
The Trump administration, which has argued that Abrego Garcia is not entitled to due process because of his immigration status, has threatened to immediately return him to Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) detention and deport him to a third country. However, last month, US District Judge Paula Xinis, who is overseeing his case, barred ICE from immediately rearresting him.
If he is taken into custody, US Magistrate Judge Barbara D. Holmes has ordered that he be given access to his attorneys.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) has said Abrego Garcia's release was "fantastic news!"
"I am thrilled for Kilmar Abrego Garcia!" she wrote on X. "The Trump administration must stop their unfounded investigations and let his family remain together."
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US State Dept Releases 'Shameful' Human Rights Report Revamped to Shield Allies, Including Israel
"This sends a chilling message that the U.S. is willing to overlook some abuses, signaling that people experiencing human rights violations may be left to fend for themselves," said one Amnesty campaigner.
Aug 12, 2025
After leaked drafts exposed the Trump administration's plans to downplay human rights abuses in some allied countries, including Israel, the U.S. Department of State released the final edition of an annual report on Tuesday, sparking fresh condemnation.
"Breaking with precedent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not provide a written introduction to the report nor did he make remarks about it," CNN reported. Still, Amanda Klasing, Amnesty International USA's national director of government relations and advocacy, called him out by name in a Tuesday statement.
"With the release of the U.S. State Department's human rights report, it is clear that the Trump administration has engaged in a very selective documentation of human rights abuses in certain countries," Klasing said. "In addition to eliminating entire sections for certain countries—for example discrimination against LGBTQ+ people—there are also arbitrary omissions within existing sections of the report based on the country."
Klasing explained that "we have criticized past reports when warranted, but have never seen reports quite like this. Never before have the reports gone this far in prioritizing an administration's political agenda over a consistent and truthful accounting of human rights violations around the world—softening criticism in some countries while ignoring violations in others. The State Department has said in relation to the reports less is more. However, for the victims and human rights defenders who rely on these reports to shine light on abuses and violations, less is just less."
"Secretary Rubio knows full well from his time in the Senate how vital these reports are in informing policy decisions and shaping diplomatic conversations, yet he has made the dangerous and short-sighted decision to put out a truncated version that doesn't tell the whole story of human rights violations," she continued. "This sends a chilling message that the U.S. is willing to overlook some abuses, signaling that people experiencing human rights violations may be left to fend for themselves."
"Failing to adequately report on human rights violations further damages the credibility of the U.S. on human rights issues," she added. "It's shameful that the Trump administration and Secretary Rubio are putting politics above human lives."
The overarching report—which includes over 100 individual country reports—covers 2024, the last full calendar year of the Biden administration. The appendix says that in March, the report was "streamlined for better utility and accessibility in the field and by partners, and to be more responsive to the underlying legislative mandate and aligned to the administration's executive orders."
As CNN detailed:
The latest report was stripped of many of the specific sections included in past reports, including reporting on alleged abuses based on sexual orientation, violence toward women, corruption in government, systemic racial or ethnic violence, or denial of a fair public trial. Some country reports, including for Afghanistan, do address human rights abuses against women.
"We were asked to edit down the human rights reports to the bare minimum of what was statutorily required," said Michael Honigstein, the former director of African Affairs at the State Department's Bureau of Human Rights, Democracy, and Labor. He and his office helped compile the initial reports.
Over the past week, since the draft country reports leaked to the press, the Trump administration has come under fire for its portrayals of El Salvador, Israel, and Russia.
The report on Israel—and the illegally occupied Palestinian territories, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank—is just nine pages. The brevity even drew the attention of Israeli media. The Times of Israel highlighted that it "is much shorter than last year's edition compiled under the Biden administration and contained no mention of the severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza."
Since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Israeli forces have slaughtered over 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local officials—though experts warn the true toll is likely far higher. As Israel has restricted humanitarian aid in recent months, over 200 people have starved to death, including 103 children.
The U.S. report on Israel does not mention the genocide case that Israel faces at the International Court of Justice over the assault on Gaza, or the International Criminal Court arrest warrants issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The section on war crimes and genocide only says that "terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah continue to engage in the
indiscriminate targeting of Israeli civilians in violation of the law of armed conflict."
As the world mourns the killing of six more Palestinian media professionals in Gaza this week—which prompted calls for the United Nations Security Council to convene an emergency meeting—the report's section on press freedom is also short and makes no mention of the hundreds of journalists killed in Israel's annihilation of the strip:
The law generally provided for freedom of expression, including for members of the press and other media, and the government generally respected this right for most Israelis. NGOs and journalists reported authorities restricted press coverage and limited certain forms of expression, especially in the context of criticism against the war or sympathy for Palestinians in Gaza.
Noting that "the human rights reports have been among the U.S. government's most-read documents," DAWN senior adviser and 32-year State Department official Charles Blaha said the "significant omissions" in this year's report on Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank render it "functionally useless for Congress and the public as nothing more than a pro-Israel document."
Like Klasing at Amnesty, Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN's executive director, specifically called out the U.S. secretary of state.
"Secretary Rubio has revamped the State Department reports for one principal purpose: to whitewash Israeli crimes, including its horrific genocide and starvation in Gaza. The report shockingly includes not a word about the overwhelming evidence of genocide, mass starvation, and the deliberate bombardment of civilians in Gaza," she said. "Rubio has defied the letter and intent of U.S. laws requiring the State Department to report truthfully and comprehensively about every country's human rights abuses, instead offering up anodyne cover for his murderous friends in Tel Aviv."
The Tuesday release came after a coalition of LGBTQ+ and human rights organizations on Monday filed a lawsuit against the U.S. State Department over its refusal to release the congressionally mandated report.
This article has been updated with comment from DAWN.
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