OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
7:44 PM – Friday, September 5, 2025
The Trump administration now reportedly plans to deport Salvadoran illegal alien Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Eswatini, Africa.
The update came Friday in an email from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official to Abrego Garcia’s attorneys. The email explained that his claim of fear of persecution in Uganda is “hard to take seriously” since he has also claimed fear of persecution in at least 22 other countries.
The list of countries included El Salvador, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, and more.
In response, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys notified ICE by email that he also “expresses a fear of torture and persecution upon removal to Eswatini.”
“Third-country nationals previously removed from the United States to Eswatini have all been detained in extremely harsh and tortuous conditions; that country has a well-documented record of human rights violations,” his attorneys stated. “[And] to our knowledge, Eswatini has offered no guarantees that it will not promptly deport Mr. Abrego Garcia to El Salvador where he already experienced torture and will experience torture again.”
The email follows a Thursday court filing by the Trump administration, which was obtained by ABC News, stating that it would again seek to deport Abrego Garcia to El Salvador if a judge grants his attorneys’ request to reopen his immigration case.
Abrego Garcia was deported in March to his native country of El Salvador, where he was taken to the notorious CECOT mega-prison.
The Trump administration has firmly asserted that he has ties to the MS-13 gang — a claim that his family and attorneys still deny, despite DHS officials citing evidence that includes a government source and the tattoos on his hand.
Then, in June, he was flown back to the U.S. to face criminal human trafficking charges in Tennessee, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
After being released into the custody of his brother in Maryland, pending trial, Abrego Garcia was once again detained by immigration authorities who indicated their intention to deport him.
A federal judge last month blocked Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s deportation until at least early October. He is currently held at a detention center in Farmville, Virginia. The court filing, submitted Thursday to the Baltimore Immigration Court, came after Abrego Garcia’s attorneys moved to reopen his case to seek asylum.
“Should the Immigration Court grant the respondent’s motion to reopen, DHS will pursue the respondent’s removal to El Salvador, as his prior grant of withholding of removal will no longer be valid,” the government wrote in the filing.
If proceedings are reopened, Abrego Garcia will be required to establish “eligibility for any forms of relief or protection from El Salvador,” the federal government stated.
Then, on Thursday, the Trump administration defended Abrego Garcia’s imprisonment at El Salvador’s CECOT prison, explaining that it “was both a lawful sanction and one not specifically intended to cause the requisite pain or suffering.”
“Even assuming that the respondent’s imprisonment rises to the level of torture, past torture is not determinative of the likelihood of future torture,” the government added.
The government also dismissed his attorneys’ concerns about El Salvador’s “gang-targeting tactics,” arguing they “do not reflect the ultimate treatment” Abrego Garcia received after his wrongful deportation in March.
Many Americans have also questioned why Abrego Garcia would be in danger, regarding gang affiliation, if he is in fact not an MS-13 member — as he so claims.
“After being processed in [CECOT], he was transferred to Centro Industrial because he was perceived as a civilian,” the filing said. “His detention conditions at Centro Industrial differ substantially from those described in the country conditions evidence.”
In its filing, the Trump administration argued that the request to reopen Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s immigration case should be denied since it “fails to show that country conditions in El Salvador have materially changed, and it further fails to establish that he” is eligible, regarding asylum.
The illegal alien’s attorneys, in an emergency motion filed last month, argued that because he was deported and later returned to the U.S., he is now eligible to apply for asylum within one year of his most recent entry.
Nonetheless, the administration has classified Abrego Garcia as a member of MS-13, which is designated a foreign terrorist organization. As a member of that particular gang, this renders him ineligible for asylum.
“He has engaged in extensive criminal activities since he has been in the United States… He is a known member of the MS-13, a dangerous FTO,” they continued.
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