Kilmar Abrego Garcia offered deportation to Costa Rica for guilty plea: court documents

Kilmar Abrego Garcia reunited with family following release Friday

In a new legal filing, lawyers for Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia claim the government is engaging in a "coordinated effort" to force their client into a guilty plea. The Maryland man, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March, was just released from jail on Friday after months of turmoil.

WASHINGTON - In a new legal filing, lawyers for Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia claim the government is engaging in a "coordinated effort" to force their client into a guilty plea. The Maryland man, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March, was just released from jail on Friday after months of turmoil. 

What we know:

In the recently released documents, the filing alleges that federal authorities gave Abrego Garcia an ultimatum: agree to a plea deal by Monday morning and be deported to Costa Rica after his sentence, or face deportation to Uganda if he fought the charges after being released from pretrial custody on Friday. 

Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Ongoing battle

The filing argues that this is a retaliatory action by the government because Abrego Garcia has repeatedly challenged his illegal deportation to El Salvador. Abrego-Garcia has no criminal record in the U.S. outside of a few traffic violations. He had regularly checked in with immigration authorities.

The defense claims the government's position on where to deport Abrego Garcia changed dramatically in a single day — from Costa Rica to Uganda — after he was legally released from pretrial detention. The lawsuit argues that this shows a blatant coordination between the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, which previously claimed they could not control one another's actions.

The legal filing also points to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security that was issued shortly after Abrego Garcia's release on Friday. The statement allegedly used "inflammatory and prejudicial statements" that the defense claims jeopardize his right to a fair trial. 

The filing, which seeks to dismiss the charges, states that the government's actions leave "little doubt that the entire federal government is engaged in a coordinated effort to punish Mr. Abrego for fighting back against its unlawful conduct".

Department of Homeland Security response

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has presented a very different perspective on the case. In a press release from Secretary Kristi Noem, DHS condemned the release of Abrego Garcia, labeling him an "MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, wife beater, and child predator" and a "public safety threat." Noem’s statement accused an "unhinged judge" of allowing a "monster" to walk free on American streets.

DHS also outlined some of its evidence against Abrego Garcia, including a 2019 validation by Prince George's County Police that he was a member of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) Gang. The agency also alleges that he was found with drugs and large amounts of cash and that his wife had previously filed a protective order against him for assault.

Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia?

The backstory:

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a 29-year-old El Salvadorian national. He fled his home country and came to the U.S. when he was 16. He has since lived in Maryland. He has three children and a wife, Jennifer Vasquez.

On March 12, Abrego Garcia was arrested in Baltimore after working a shift as a sheet metal apprentice and picking up his 5-year-old son, who has autism and other disabilities, from his grandmother’s house, according to his lawyers. 

He was then sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT which activists say is rife with abuses. Three days later, he was deported.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement say they removed him to a Salvadoran prison over a 2019 accusation that he was in the MS-13 gang. 

Abrego Garcia's ties to MS-13 were never proven and he has repeatedly denied being a gang member. His lawyers argue that the U.S. government "has never produced an iota of evidence" that he is affiliated with MS-13 or any other street gang.

His eventual expulsion to El Salvador violated a U.S. immigration judge’s order in 2019 that shielded him from deportation to his native country. The judge ruled that Abrego Garcia had credible fears of being killed if he returned to El Salvador. 

Abrego-Garcia has no criminal record in the U.S. outside of a few traffic violations. He had regularly checked in with immigration authorities.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials later admitted in a court filing that his deportation was due to an "administrative error" but the administration has persisted in its efforts to have him removed from the country.