Kilmar Abrego Garcia threatened with deportation to Eswatini

The Trump administration notified Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s team that immigration authorities are looking to deport the Salvadorian national to Eswatini, a small nation in southern Africa, according to multiple news outlets. 

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official said in an email that Abrego Garcia’s attorneys told the department that their client, who entered the U.S. illegally when he was young, that he fears “prosecution or torture” in Uganda, where the administration previously sought to deport him. 

“That claim of fear is hard to take seriously, especially given that you have claimed (through your attorneys) that you fear persecution or torture in at least 22 different countries,” an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official said. 

“Nonetheless, we hereby notify you that your new country of removal is Eswatini, Africa,” the official added. 

The Hill has reached out to DHS for comment. 

The push marks the administration’s latest effort to deport Abrego Garcia, whom Trump officials have accused of being a member of the notorious MS-13 gang. The Salvadorian national and his legal team have denied the allegations.

Abrego Garcia is currently being held at an immigration detention facility in Virginia. 

Earlier this year, the administration sent the man, who was living in Maryland under a temporary protective order, to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador despite an order from a judge barring the deportation to the country in Central America. He was later moved to a different prison and the Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. had to facilitate his return.

The Trump administration brought Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. in June, where he faced criminal charges in Tennessee. He has pleaded not guilty in that case and has fought for the case to be dismissed.

Eswatini is one of the few African nations that have accepted migrants that the U.S. has deported in recent weeks. The administration sent five men, all of whom have criminal backgrounds and convictions, to the small nation in July.