Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia return to court as his deportation saga continues

(BALTIMORE) — Attorneys for wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia will be in court in Maryland on Friday for an evidentiary hearing in which government witnesses are expected to testify about the steps taken to remove him from the United States.

The hearing comes after U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis appeared exasperated on Monday with government attorneys who could not answer if there was additional evidence about plans to deport him to Eswatini, beyond letters sent to Abrego Garcia’s lawyers.

The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday notified Abrego Garcia that it planned to deport him to Ghana. The agency told his attorneys later that the notice was “premature” and asked them to disregard the document. 

Ghana’s foreign minister, Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa, said in a Friday X post that the West African nation is not accepting Abrego Garcia.

“This has been directly and unambiguously conveyed to US authorities,” he wrote. “In my interactions with US officials, I made clear that our understanding to accept a limited number of non-criminal West Africans, purely on the grounds of African solidarity and humanitarian principles would not be expanded.”

The Salvadoran national’s attorneys have argued that if there are no current plans for his imminent removal, Abrego Garcia should be released from detention.

Abrego Garcia, who had been living in Maryland with his wife and children, was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison, despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution. The Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which his family and attorneys deny.

He was brought back to the U.S. in June to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee, to which he has pleaded not guilty. After being released into the custody of his brother in Maryland pending trial, he was again detained by immigration authorities and is currently being held in Pennsylvania.

The government has told Abrego Garcia’s attorneys that it intends to deport him to a country other then El Salvador, including possibly Uganda or Eswatini.

As Abrego Garcia awaits trial in Tennessee, Judge Xinis has currently banned the government from removing him from the United States.

A separate hearing in that case is scheduled for Friday, where his criminal attorneys in Tennessee will discuss discovery and Abrego Garcia’s motion to dismiss that case for vindictive and selective prosecution.

In a filing on Thursday, Robert McGuire, the acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, said he will not produce communications between senior government officials, including Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, about the prosecution of the case.

“The United States submits that any communications between senior government actors themselves about this case, but which did not influence the Acting United States Attorney because they did not reach him or were not communicated to him would not be discoverable,” McGuire said.

The government said in the filing that Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have to show that McGuire was “prevailed upon” by another entity like the Department of Homeland Security or the Justice Department to seek an indictment that otherwise would not have been brought.

McGuire previously said in a sworn affidavit that he never received any direction from the DOJ “that was unethical or inappropriate.”

“Undersigned counsel intends to submit a supplemental affidavit that he has had no such communications from any source: the Department of Homeland Security, the White House, or anyone,” McGuire said.

Abrego Garcia’s criminal trial on the Tennessee charges is scheduled for Jan. 27.

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