Kilmar brego Garca, a la derecha, y su hermano Csar brego Garca, al centro, llegan a la oficina del Servicio de Inmigracin y Control de Aduanas, el lunes 25 de agosto de 2025, en Baltimore. (AP Foto/Stephanie Scarbrough)2025-08-27T13:29:19Z Follow live updates on President Donald Trump and his administration WASHINGTON (AP) Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who has become the face of President Donald Trumps hardline immigration agenda, wants to seek asylum in the United States, his lawyers told a federal judge Wednesday.Abrego Garcia, 30, was detained Monday in Baltimore by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement after leaving a Tennessee jail on Friday. The Trump administration said it intends to deport hm to the African country of Uganda. Administration officials have said hes part of the dangerous MS-13 gang, an allegation Abrego Garcia denies.The Salvadoran nationals lawyers are fighting the deportation efforts in court, arguing he has the right to express fear of persecution and torture in Uganda. Abrego Garcia has also told immigration authorities he would prefer to be sent to Costa Rica if he must be removed from the U.S.He had been denied asylum in 2019 by a U.S. immigration judge because he applied for asylum more than a year after he fled to the U.S. He left El Salvador at the age of 16 around 2011 to Maryland to join his brother, who had become a U.S. citizen. Although the immigration judge denied asylum for Abrego Garcia, the judge did issue an order shielding Abrego Garcia from deportation to El Salvador. Thats because he faced credible threats of violence from a local gang there that had terrorized him and his family. Following the immigration judges ruling, Abrego Garcia was released under federal supervision in 2019 and continued to live with his American wife and children in Maryland until this year. But the Trump administration deported him to a notorious El Salvador prison in March. Stay up to date with the latest U.S. news by signing up to our WhatsApp channel. The deportation violated the immigration judges 2019 order barring his deportation to El Salvador. Abrego Garcias wife sued to bring him back. Facing mounting pressure and a U.S. Supreme Court order, the Trump administration returned Abrego Garcia to the U.S. in June, but only to face federal charges of human smuggling. The Trump administration moved to deport Abrego Garcia again on Monday. He then stated his intent to reopen his immigration case in Maryland and to seek asylum again, his lawyers said Wednesday. Abrego Garcias lawyers say sending him to Uganda is punishment for successfully fighting his deportation to El Salvador, refusing to plead guilty to the smuggling charges and for seeking release from jail in Tennessee. Meanwhile in Uganda, critics claim that the country has made a murky deal with the Trump administration to accept deportees in exchange for easing political pressure on the countrys president, who has ruled for nearly four decades.___Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia.