Rising This Week: The coercion of Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Trump's government threatens to whisk Abrego to Uganda if he doesn't give up his right to a trial.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia reunited with his family. (Photo courtesy of CASA)

Rising This Week catalogues what is going on in courts, protests, and civic engagement.

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Earlier this weekend, Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s attorneys revealed the Trump administration’s latest scheme to deprive their client of his due process rights: threatening to send him to Uganda if he does not give up his right to a trial.

In a letter on Saturday, Abrego’s lawyer Sean Hecker revealed that the government came to his legal team with an offer on Thursday, the day before his client’s release on bail. If Abrego agreed to delay his release on bail, and pleaded guilty to a two-count indictment accusing him of smuggling immigrants, the government said it would allow him to live freely in Costa Rica after serving his sentence.

On Friday, Abrego declined to delay his release on bail, and he was reunited with his family back in Maryland. The Trump administration cast a cloud on that reunion with a letter to his legal team ordering Abrego to report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore pending deportation to Uganda.

Then, the government gave Abrego an ultimatum.

“On Friday evening, the government informed Mr. Abrego that he has until first thing Monday morning—precisely when he must report to ICE’s Baltimore Field Office—to accept a plea in exchange for deportation to Costa Rica, or else that offer will be off the table forever,” Hecker wrote. “There can be only one interpretation of these events: the DOJ, DHS, and ICE are using their collective powers to force Mr. Abrego to choose between a guilty plea followed by relative safety, or rendition to Uganda, where his safety and liberty would be under threat.”

Plea deals are often coercive, and it is not uncommon for prosecutors to threaten additional charges against defendants or their family members if they do not plead guilty. But the Trump Justice Department’s pressure on Abrego does not rely on what prosecutors claim that they can prove at trial — but where they can dump the defendant on a global map.

Abrego’s defense team cited the government’s pressure campaign as evidence of selective and vindictive prosecution for asserting his rights to challenge his illegal expulsion to El Salvador and defend himself at trial.

Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, who is frequently seen with Abrego’s family as the chief of organizing and leadership at the advocacy group CASA, said the government is turning Abrego into a “martyr” for standing up for his rights.

“They’re throwing the entire federal apparatus at one father of three to prove that no one should dare challenge their authority,” Walther-Rodriguez said in a statement. “These torturous behaviors must end at once. Enough is enough!”

Walther-Rodriguez translated Abrego’s statement upon his release to his family from Spanish in the video below.

CASA will hold a prayer vigil on Monday morning outside of ICE’s Baltimore Field Office. More information can be found in the listings below.