Now in the United States, Kilmer Abrego
Garcia, the migrant whose wrongful
deportation to El Salvador turned him
into something of a symbol of President
Trump's immigration policies, has now
been detained again by US Immigration
and Customs Enforcement, ICE. He was
returned to the US in June only to now
face human smuggling charges that his
lawyers have described as preposterous
and vindictive. US authorities have
informed Kilma Abrego Garcia that he may
be deported to Uganda after his refusal
to accept a plea deal in a pending
criminal case. Well, Mr. Abrego Garcia's
lawyer has been talking in the last
hour. So, let's take a listen.
>> Mr. Rego Garcia has filed a new lawsuit
in the federal district court for the
District of Maryland,
[Applause]
>> challenging his current confinement and
challenging uh deportation to Uganda or
to any other country unless and until
he's had a fair trial as in an
immigration court as well as his full
appeal rights.
In 2019, Mr. Mr. Rego Garcia had a full
trial. It lasted over two days in this
building behind me. And the result of
that trial was that the judge entered an
order that he could not be deported to
El Salvador. That order was not even
appealed by the government. If they want
to deport him to any other country, they
need to go through that exact same
process.
>> Unless and unless and until they have
gone through that process, they do not
have the right to put him on an
airplane. And that's what we're going to
be asking the district court to ensure
that he is not put on any flight to any
country whatsoever, whether it's Uganda,
South Sudan,
what have you, unless and until he has
had a full and fair trial in an
immigration court, as well as his full
>> Well, that was Mr. Abrego Garcia's
lawyer speaking there. And I've also
been talking to the CBS news
correspondent Camila Mononttoya Galves
who's in Baltimore and told us why this
is such a controversial case across the
United States.
Well, after checking into this Icefield
office behind me in Baltimore, Maryland,
Kilaro Garcia was retaken into ICE
custody and now is being processed for
deportation yet again. This is of course
the man who gained infamy back in March
when he was deported by mistake to El
Salvador and transferred to that
notorious mega prison known as Sakot.
And for months, even though the Trump
administration admitted it made a legal
mistake in sending him there, it refused
to bring him back to the US. He was only
brought back to American soil in early
June, but to face serious charges
related to human smuggling. Now, he has
been released from pre-trial detention
pending the start of those criminal
trials starting next year, but that does
not mean that his legal troubles are o
over. Immigration officials can still
technically detain and deport ao Garcia
because he entered the US illegally back
in 2011 and has an active deportation
order. The open question now is whether
immigration officials will try to deport
him before that criminal trial starts in
January or after.
>> Yeah. And Camille, we were just
listening to his lawyer who was saying
that he is being punished for exercising
his constitutional rights to fight back
against wrongful detention and wrongful
deportation.
>> That has been the claim by the lawyers
for months now that Mr. AO Garcia is
only being criminally prosecuted and
targeted by immigration officials
because he legally challenged that
deportation to El Salvador back in
March. Of course, in court, many judges
have ruled in Kil Maro Garcia's favor,
but the Trump administration has
maintained that even though his
deportation to El Salvador was a
mistake, this man is still a gang
member, a human smuggler, and somebody
who should not be in the country because
he entered illegally. And so the
administration is moving quickly to try
to deport him to a third country. His
lawyers have been informed that country
could be the East African country of
Uganda, but technically speaking, the
administration has the ability to deport
him to any other country in the world
that is not El Salvador.
>> And um just just tell us a bit more
about his case because it's become
almost a sort of test case, hasn't it,
of these very hardline and controversial
deportation policies by President Trump
and the White House.
That's right. This case gained a lot of
controversy because of the question of
due process and whether the
administration was moving too quickly,
too aggressively in its mass deportation
operation and trampling on the due
process rights of migrants in the
process. That is certainly what the
lawyers for AO Garcia would argue not
just in court but in the court of public
opinion. The Trump administration is
saying that they are trying to fix an
illegal immigration crisis that was
created under the Biden administration.
But certainly this case has raised a lot
of questions about due process and what
sort of legal rights people who don't
have documents in this country have on
American soil. For now, we should wait
and see what actually happens to Garcia.
But for the time being, he remains an
ICE detention facing deportation to an
unknown country.
That's CBS correspondent Camilo
Mononttoya Galves talking to me a little
earlier.