Democrats outraged that alleged gang member could be sent to Uganda

Democrats are expressing outrage that alleged gang member and illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia may be deported to Uganda. 

In the latest turn in Abrego Garcia’s high-profile immigration case, the alleged MS-13 gang member was arrested by ICE at an immigration check-in at a Baltimore facility on Monday and is now facing possible deportation to Uganda. 

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, an Obama appointee, ruled on Monday to temporarily block Abrego Garcia’s deportation, ordering he stay detained in the U.S. pending a hearing. Xinis ordered Abrego Garcia be kept at the same facility he was moved to in Virginia. 

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who has been leading the charge of Democrats advocating for Abrego Garcia, expressed outrage over his arrest and possible deportation on Monday, saying, “ICE is holding Kilmar Ábrego García and refusing to answer questions from his lawyers — while the Trump Admin continues to spread lies about his case.”

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“Instead of spewing unproven allegations on social media, they need to put up or shut up IN COURT,” he went on, adding, “Mr. Ábrego García must be allowed to defend himself.” 

This follows Salvadoran Abrego Garcia being released from federal custody on Friday in Tennessee, where he was being held pending his trial for charges of human smuggling of illegal immigrants in the U.S. 

Earlier this year, Abrego Garcia was deported by the Trump administration to his home country of El Salvador, but after Democratic uproar over an alleged lack of due process and a Supreme Court ruling ordering his return, he was eventually returned to the U.S. to stand trial. 

According to an earlier X post by Van Hollen, the senator met with Abrego Garcia virtually on Sunday to discuss his “long and torturous nightmare” of being deported and standing trial for human smuggling. 

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Van Hollen wrote that “during our conversation, I shared with him that I and many others have been fighting for months to ensure that his constitutional due process rights were respected despite Trump’s efforts to deny them at every turn.” 

“The courts & public outcry forced Trump to return him to MD, but Trump’s cronies keep lying about his case & are engaged in a malicious abuse of power to try to deport him to Uganda,” wrote Van Hollen, adding, “As I told Kilmar, I won’t stop fighting for justice & due process for all.” 

Van Hollen was not the only Democrat to express outrage over Abrego Garcia’s arrest. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., also took to X to denounce the Trump administration, which she said, “wrongly sent Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a horrific El Salvadoran prison.”

“Now, just days after he was reunited with his family, they’re trying to deny him his rights and deport him to Uganda. Kilmar—like everyone—deserves a fair hearing to defend himself,” wrote Warren. 

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Meanwhile, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, a prominent Democratic voice and vocal Trump critic, also drilled into the administration, saying, “Let’s be clear: deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda makes no sense—it’s not his home country.”

“Nothing about this process has been fair,” she wrote. “ICE is targeting him with cruelty. This is the weaponization of government, not justice.”

Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., who joined a rally advocating for Abrego Garcia earlier on Monday, wrote that “Mr. Abrego Garcia must not be sent to some third party country like Uganda.”

Ivey wrote that “the people united will continue to seek justice for Kilmar!” 

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In response, the Department of Homeland Security posted on its official X account, “Kilmar Abrego Garcia is not and will never be a Maryland Man—he is a criminal illegal alien from El Salvador and public safety threat.” 

DHS called it “insane” that “sanctuary politicians chose to glorify and stand with an MS-13 gang member over the safety of American citizens.”

The agency said that Trump and Secretary Kristi Noem “are 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.”

Meanwhile, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital that, “Democrats have proven that they care more about a criminal illegal alien MS-13 member who beat his wife than they do about the safety and security of the American people.” 

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“The Trump Administration will never apologize for fulfilling our promise to deport criminal illegal aliens,” said Jackson.

Chris Newman, an attorney for Abrego Garcia’s family, categorically denied DHS’ allegations, telling Fox News Digital, “None of those things are true, full stop.”

“The problem here is that the administration is trying its hardest to litigate this case through the media, as opposed to through courts of law,” said Newman. 

He said that “in essence” what the Trump administration has done “is to use the highest office in the land to blackmail an innocent man into sacrificing his constitutional rights.”

“And we’ve been fighting against that both and winning in court even as the Trump administration insists on polluting the public debate with lies.”

In an emailed statement sent to Fox News Digital, Ivey accused Trump of ignoring the law.

“When I prosecuted, MS 13 cases, we indicted, tried the case, won the convictions, sentence them to jail time, and did not support them until after they had served jail their sentence,” said Ivey. “That way, we followed the constitution and the law. The Trump administration is ignoring both. They want to deport them without giving them the day in court that the Supreme Court has required. And they want to jail them indefinitely even though they haven’t been convicted of a crime. That’s wrong and I’ll continue to fight against it.”

Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report.