January 6, 2025
Related articles
National News
‘He will never go free’: Trump admin vows to deport Abrego Garcia
The Department of Justice vowed Thursday to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the migrant who President Donald Trump’s administration wrongfully deported to El Salvador earlier this year due to an “administrative error.”
“Our plan is that he will be taken into ICE custody and removal proceedings will be initiated,” said Jonathan Guynn, deputy assistant attorney general at the DOJ’s civil division, Notus reported.
Guynn was answering questions in a federal courtroom Thursday from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, among several federal district judges in Maryland whom the DOJ sued over their opposition to the Trump administration’s efforts to deport migrants to countries of which they have no connection, and without due process.
Xinis asked Guynn where the Trump administration, now planning to deport Garcia a second time, would deport him to.
“To a third country is my understanding,” Guynn said, ruling out that the Trump administration would again deport Garcia to El Salvador. “There’s no timeline for these specific proceedings.”
Garcia, who was recently charged with crimes related to human smuggling, charges he denies, was ordered by a federal judge Wednesday to be released, and is expected to be released Friday. Concerns exist, however, that Garcia could be arrested the moment he’s released.
While Guynn said there were “no imminent plans to remove (Garcia) to a third country, he reportedly didn’t push back when asked whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would simply arrest him upon release. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told Axios, "We have said it for months and it remains true to this day. He will never go free on American soil."