BALTIMORE — Kilmar Abrego García was detained Monday morning at Baltimore’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office while appearing for a routine ICE check-in. He is being processed for deportation to Uganda, according to a post on the social media site X by the White House.

Supporters gathered by immigration nonprofit CASA rallied on the steps and in the plaza outside the building.

Chants of “Sí, se puede” — “Yes, you can,” the chant associated with the largely Latino union, United Farm Workers — filled the air as Abrego García spoke to the crowd outside the building where the ICE office is located, his wife and others by his side, their hands on his shoulders.

Abrego García, a 30-year-old El Salvador native and father of three from Prince George’s County, had been detained for five months following a mistaken deportation. He was released last week from a Tennessee jail and returned to Maryland, on the condition that he regularly reports for ICE check-ins.

On Friday, he was told to report to the Baltimore ICE office for possible deportation to Uganda, court documents filed in the Middle District of Tennessee showed.

“Pursuant to the court order issued in the District Court of Maryland … please let this email serve as notice that DHS may remove your client, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, to Uganda no earlier than 72 hours from now (absent weekends),” wrote ICE Principal Legal Advisor Charles Wall in an email to lawyer Sean Hecker, sent at 4: 01 p.m. Friday.

According to the filings, if Abrego García agreed to plead guilty to the charges against him, he would be allowed to leave for Costa Rica, which had offered him refugee status. If he refused the plea, he would be deported to Uganda.

According to his lawyer, Abrego García was not given the opportunity to agree to the plea. Instead, upon setting foot on the sixth floor, his lawyer said, ICE officials detained Abrego Garcia in front of his wife..

“Today, ICE law enforcement arrested Kilmar Abrego Garcia [sic][ and are processing him for deportation,” Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem posted on the social media platform X at 8:34 a.m. Monday. “President Trump is not going to allow this illegal alien, who is an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator to terrorize American citizens any longer.”

The White House posted a thread on X with a photoshopped poster of Abrego García, with the words MS-13 displayed prominently under his face. “Still NOT [sic] a Maryland Dad,” the post read.

Abrego García, a native of El Salvador who came to the U.S. illegally when he was 16 years old, has been accused by the U.S. government of being a member of the MS-13 gang in addition to the charges of human trafficking. He was first detained in a Salvadoran mega-prison for terrorists and later in other jails following a mistaken deportation, despite Maryland officials regularly arguing for his return to the U.S.

In June, he was returned to the U.S. only to be held on human trafficking charges in Tennessee. Abrego García maintains his innocence against the charges and says he is not a member of any gang.

Minutes before his arrest, Abrego García spoke through a translator to the crowd, urging them not to lose hope.

“No matter what happens today at my ICE check-in, promise me this,” he said. “You’ll continue praying, resisting, fighting for me and for all.”

Hecker filed a motion to dismiss the trafficking charges as “vindictive and selective prosecution.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen released a statement Monday saying he will continue to fight for Abrego García’s right to due process.

“While ICE is holding Kilmar Ábrego García and keeping his lawyers in the dark as to what is next for him, Administration officials continue to spread lies about the facts in his case,” Van Hollen said. “Instead of spewing unproven allegations in the press and social media, the Trump Administration needs to put up or shut up in court and allow Mr. Ábrego García the opportunity to defend himself.”

Abrego García was originally granted a withholding of removal by an immigration judge in 2019, which protected him from deportation because he would face gang violence if he returned to El Salvador.

U.S. Rep. Glenn Ivey, whose district includes Hyattsville, where Abrego García has lived with his family for years, spoke before Abrego García entered the building for his appointment. Ivey called the charges unjust.

Ivey said when he worked for the Justice Department, they admitted when they were wrong and owned it — unlike the current administration.

Ellyn Loy, a Baltimore resident, came to support Abrego García and said: “Seeing what’s happening in this country, it is becoming a fascist culture. … People need to be a part of [resistance] in whatever way they can.”

Loy stood with longtime friend and now-Hyattsville resident Rob Duncan, a retired Local 5 iron worker out of Washington.

Abrego García is his neighbor, Duncan said, and although he did not know him personally before the arrest, he said he knew many in the community who did.

Duncan said he has attended every news conference or courthouse appearance by Abrego García’s wife, Jennifer Sura, but this was his first time seeing Abrego García in person.

“If they can come for my neighbor, I’m going to be next,” Duncan said.

Sura and Abrego García entered together on Monday morning, but she emerged from the building without her husband and did not speak to the public or media. Before she exited, CASA members led the public in a chant telling media to get off the steps of the courthouse. Some attendees called the media cockroaches.

CASA volunteers and staff surrounded Sura and jogged her to a black SUV, pushing back media members jogging with her. One person with CASA, wearing a yellow vest, grabbed The Sun’s reporter by the shoulder to hold her back.

Reporters learned moments later that Abrego García had been detained by ICE — an outcome his immigration attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said he expected.

“As soon as he hit the sixth floor, they detained him and would not say why or where they would take him,” he said in Spanish.

“Jennifer firmly looked at the officers in the face and said, ‘Remember this moment when you go home and look at your kids. You have once again kidnapped my husband,’” a CASA representative told the crowd after Sura left.

It was unclear Monday morning if the plea deal is off the table, but Sandoval-Moshenberg said Abrego García may be allowed to leave for Costa Rica if he pleads guilty and to Uganda if he does not.

“They don’t have present legal authority to deport him to Uganda,” he said. “He has legal rights to due process and is on ankle monitoring. There was no reason for [this].”

Sandoval-Moshenberg said he filed a suit this morning asking that Abrego García not be removed until he has gone through the full due process he is entitled to. The case has been assigned to Judge Paula Xinis for the U.S. District Court of Maryland.

“Our contention is they can’t send him to any one of the other 200 countries on earth unless he will have a legal status as Costa Rica has offered (as a refugee),” he said. “The Baltimore ICE is notorious; it has been one of the worst in the nation since February of people coming in the front door and being taken out the back door.”

They are weaponizing the immigration system, Sandoval-Moshenberg said.

“It is clear the government is far more interested in throwing its weight around and doing whatever they want to whoever they want,” the lawyer said.

Area elected officials in Baltimore voiced their upset with the situation.

“This is a horrible day,” said Baltimore city councilwoman Odette Ramos, tearing up. “This is one of the most emotional days I’ve had in my time as a councilwoman.

“They’re playing with his life — and not just him, there was a whole line of people [entering the building for their own ICE check-ins],” she said. “They were all scared.”

State Del. Sheila Ruth, a Baltimore County Democrat, called Abrego García’s arrest unjust.

“He just wants to be with his family and now he’s a political pawn,” she said.

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