Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran immigrant whose wrongful March deportation sparked a high-profile legal battle, was released from the Putnam County Jail in Cookeville, Tennessee, on 22 August after a federal judge ruled he did not pose a flight risk or danger. The 30-year-old, indicted for allegedly transporting undocumented migrants in 2022, traveled to his family’s home in Maryland under electronic monitoring while he awaits a January 2027 trial. Within minutes of his release, Immigration and Customs Enforcement notified Abrego Garcia’s lawyers that the agency intends to deport him to Uganda and ordered him to report to ICE’s Baltimore field office on 25 August, according to court filings. The email satisfies a separate Maryland court’s requirement that officials give at least 72 hours’ notice before removing him to a third country. Defense attorneys say the notice followed a late-night ultimatum from prosecutors: remain in jail, plead guilty and be deported to Spanish-speaking Costa Rica, or fight the charges and face removal to Uganda. They argue the shift shows a coordinated effort by the Justice and Homeland Security departments to pressure their client and have asked the Tennessee judge to dismiss the case as retaliatory. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended the government’s stance, calling Abrego Garcia a public-safety threat and vowing to pursue his deportation despite his release. The dispute keeps Abrego Garcia at the center of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and tests court-ordered limits on using third-country expulsions while criminal proceedings are pending.