Legal counsel for , the Maryland resident who was erroneously deported to an El Salvadoran prison in March, have accused the Trump Administration of attempting to “compel” their client into pleading guilty to criminal human trafficking charges or else face expulsion to Uganda, a nation he has never visited.
In a formal request for the dismissal of the charges against him, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys revealed that the federal government presented a final-hour plea agreement on Thursday, the day before he was due to be released . As part of the deal, prosecutors stated he would be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for remaining incarcerated and admitting guilt to charges of smuggling undocumented immigrants into the United States.
According to the document filed, the prosecuting attorneys provided Abrego Garcia’s defense team with a letter from Costa Rica’s Ministry of Governance, Police, and Public Security, which guaranteed that Garcia could reside freely in the country if he were deported there, either through acceptance as a refugee or by being granted some form of legal standing.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers declined the proposal to keep Abrego Garcia in jail, but they agreed to relay the plea bargain offer to their client. However, the court filing states that “within minutes” of his release on Friday from a jail facility in Tennessee, Abrego’s counsel was notified by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that he would be deported to Uganda and was “ordered to report to ICE’s Baltimore Field Office Monday.”
“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,” the court filing read. “The same drive for retribution that fueled this criminal case evidently caused a dramatic change in the government’s position with respect to third-country removal.”
Abrego’s lawyers asserted that this new strategy “penalizes” Abrego Garcia for exercising his constitutional right to await trial outside of detention, and called for the immediate dismissal of the criminal charges against him.
Garcia’s erroneous deportation—which took place despite a direct court directive prohibiting his removal to El Salvador—has become a pivotal case for the Administration within its extensive mass deportation campaign.
The Trump Administration has disregarded numerous judicial mandates, including one from the Supreme Court that instructed it to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S.
Trump eventually did bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S., only to subsequently detain him on human smuggling allegations in Tennessee starting in June.
TIME has reached out to the DOJ for comment.