Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose case has come to encapsulate much of President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda, wants to seek asylum in the United States, his lawyers told a federal judge Wednesday.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose case has come to encapsulate much of President Donald Trump ’s hard-line immigration agenda, wants to seek asylum in the United States, his lawyers told a federal judge Wednesday.
The asylum request — Abrego Garcia’s second, after a denial in 2019 — has been submitted in a Maryland immigration court, further complicating his complex immigration case that intensified in March when he was wrongfully deported to a notorious prison in his native El Salvador.
The Trump administration maintains that Abrego Garcia, 30, is part of the dangerous MS-13 gang — an allegation he denies — and has said it intends to deport him to the African country of Uganda.
If Abrego Garcia’s new asylum request is approved, it could provide a green card and a path to citizenship. But his petition must go through the U.S. immigration court system, which is not part of the judiciary but an arm of the Department of Justice and under the Trump administration’s authority.Asylum or deportation
Immigration courts have become a key focus of Trump’s renewed immigration enforcement efforts. The president has fired more than 50 immigration judges since he returned to the White House in January.
But Abrego Garcia has something that most people in his situation lack: A team of lawyers fighting for him and a federal judge who is monitoring his case.
His attorneys filed a lawsuit before U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland to ensure that Abrego Garcia can exercise his constitutional right to fight against deportation in immigration court. They have also argued he has the right to express fear of persecution and torture in Uganda. Abrego Garcia has told authorities he would prefer to be sent to Costa Rica if he must be removed from the U.S.
Xinis stated explicitly during a conference call with lawyers Wednesday that she will not — and cannot — rule on whether Abrego Garcia is granted asylum or is deported.
“We have the understanding that the asylum process is of no moment to me,” Xinis said. “I don’t have jurisdiction over that.”
But Xinis said she can weigh in to ensure Abrego Garcia is allowed to exercise his right to due process.
