Abrego Garcia to be deported to eSwatini

The Trump administration informed Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Friday that it now plans to deport him to eSwatini as he continues to fight efforts to re-deport him, reports CNN. In an email to the Maryland man, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official said that given Abrego Garcia’s concerns about being deported to several other countries, they now seek to remove him to eSwatini. The Department of Homeland Security previously notified Abrego Garcia of plans to deport him to Uganda, but he objected to the removal, citing fears of being persecuted or tortured. An ICE official confirmed that Abrego Garcia will be deported to eSwatini. Abrego Garcia is currently in ICE custody after being brought back to the US to face human smuggling charges, but the Trump administration is trying to quickly deport him again, even before the trial concludes. Last week, the federal judge overseeing Abrego Garcia’s case ruled that he cannot be deported until at least early October, after Trump administration officials are expected to testify about the government’s efforts to re-deport him. Abrego Garcia has said he preferred to be sent to Costa Rica, a country that has said it would be willing to give him some form of legal status should he be sent there. eSwatini is governed by a monarch who has absolute power, and is one of four African countries that have struck a deal with the Trump administration to receive foreign deportees, along with Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda. Abrego Garcia is also separately seeking to renew his bid for asylum, a process that will play out before an immigration judge within the Justice Department.

Lawyers for five men deported by the US to eSwatini said they are being denied proper access to their clients, who are being imprisoned illegally, reports The Guardian. The men from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Yemen and Cuba have criminal convictions, but had all served their sentences and been released in the US, their lawyers said. The US deported them to eSwatini without warning in July, claiming they were ‘depraved monsters’. The US has sent migrants to several third countries, as Donald Trump’s administration ramps up deportations. Eight men were sent to South Sudan in July, Rwanda accepted seven migrants last week and Uganda has agreed to take in asylum seekers. The lawyers said they have been unable to have private conversations with their clients, who are allowed one short video call a week in the presence of prison staff. A local lawyer representing the five men has been prevented from visiting them in the maximum security Matsapha correctional centre. The eSwatini lawyer filed a case demanding access to the men, but a hearing scheduled for Monday was postponed when the judge did not show up, said Alma David, who is representing the Yemeni and Cuban men. David said she had spoken to two of the men while all five deportees were with guards and the prison chief, who said that only the US Embassy in eSwatini could grant access to the men. ‘Since when does the US Embassy have jurisdiction over eSwatini’s national prisons?,’ she asked. Last month, a group of eSwatini NGOs challenged the country’s acceptance of the deportees on constitutional grounds, arguing that Parliament had not been consulted and that the men’s human rights were being violated.

South Sudan said on Saturday it repatriated to Mexico a man deported from the US in July. The man, a Mexican identified as Jesus Munoz-Gutierrez, was among a group of eight who had been in government custody in the East African country since their deportation from the US. His repatriation to Mexico was carried out by South Sudan's Foreign Ministry in concert with the Mexican Embassy in neighboring Ethiopia, the South Sudanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The repatriation was carried out ‘in full accordance with relevant international law, bilateral agreements, and established diplomatic protocols,’ it said. Rights groups have argued that the Trump administration's increasing practice of deporting migrants to third countries violated international law and the basic rights of migrants. It is unclear whether Gutierrez and other deportees had access to legal representation. The group of eight men was convicted of serious crimes – including murder, homicide, sexual assault, lascivious acts with a child and robbery – in the US, the Trump administration said. None of the deportees is from South Sudan. Eight men from Asia and Latin America were deported from the US to South Sudan in July 2025 after a weeks-long legal fight with the US Department of Homeland Security. The deportations signify a major political victory for the Trump administration, which has sought to convince countries around the world – irrespective of their human rights record – to accept deportees who are not their citizens.