❓WHAT HAPPENED: An immigration judge denied MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s request to reopen his asylum case.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an MS-13 gang member, and Judge Philip Taylor.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The decision was made on Wednesday, October 2, 2025, in the United States.
💬KEY QUOTE: “The word ‘may’ is permissive and indicates to the Court that in sending this notification to Respondent’s counsel, the Department sought to convey that it reserved the right to remove him to Uganda,” – Judge Philip Taylor.
🎯IMPACT: The decision means Abrego Garcia remains without asylum status in the U.S. and faces potential deportation.
A federal immigration judge has denied the request of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an MS-13 gang member, to reopen his asylum case. This decision follows his deportation to El Salvador and subsequent return to the United States.
Abrego Garcia, who was residing illegally in Maryland, was deported to his native El Salvador earlier this year and placed in the country’s CECOT super-prison. Democrat-aligned judges, however, ordered his return to the U.S., where he faced child sex-trafficking charges in Tennessee.
His attempt to stop deportation to a third country by claiming fear of persecution and torture in Uganda was met with skepticism by the court. “I fear persecution in Uganda on account of my race, nationality, political opinion, and membership in a particular social group,” Abrego Garcia had stated.
Judge Philip Taylor, in his ruling, emphasized the lack of evidence that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intended to deport Abrego Garcia to Uganda or Eswatini (Swaziland). “The word ‘may’ is permissive and indicates to the Court that in sending this notification to Respondent’s counsel, the Department sought to convey that it reserved the right to remove him to Uganda,” Judge Taylor wrote, also noting the untimeliness of the motion to reopen the asylum case, filed nearly six years after initial proceedings.
The decision leaves Abrego Garcia without asylum status, and the potential for deportation remains, as the U.S. government retains the option to remove him to a third country.
BREAKING: @FoxNews has obtained an email ICE sent to Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s lawyers this afternoon notifying them that ICE now plans to deport him to the tiny African country of ESWATINI due to him claiming fear of persecution/torture in Uganda & 20+ other countries, which ICE… pic.twitter.com/qpPiE6ZeyB
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 5, 2025
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