Abrego Garcia: US Now Plans to Deport Man Accused of Being a Gang Member to Ghana
- The US now plans to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Ghana in its latest attempt to remove the Salvadorian native
- The US Department of Homeland Security first considered two other African countries before Ghana's name came up
- The Trump administration claimed Garcia was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which he has denied
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The US now plans to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia, one of the headline names in the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration, to Ghana.
This is according to a Department of Homeland Security notice to his attorneys.
Source: Getty Images
ABC News reported that the Department of Homeland Security wanted to send him to Eswatini and Uganda.
Garcia had previously been wrongly deported to El Salvador and then brought back to the US.
His lawyers said he will be in court on October 10 for an evidentiary hearing in which government witnesses are expected to testify about the steps taken to remove him to Eswatini or elsewhere.
Garcia, a Salvadoran native who had been living in Maryland with his wife and children, was deported in March to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison.
This was despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution.
The Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which his family and attorneys deny.
He was brought back to the US in June to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee, to which he pleaded not guilty.
After being released into the custody of his brother in Maryland pending trial, he was again detained by immigration authorities, who state their intent to deport him.
Ghana agreement with US to accept deportees
In September, President John Mahama first revealed that Ghana was receiving people deported from the US.
During an engagement with the press on September 10, Mahama said there was a bilateral agreement with the US allowing nationals from various West African countries to be sent to Ghana.
At the time, 14 deportees had already arrived in the country.
Source: Facebook
Mahama justified this, saying Ecowas's free movement protocol allowed citizens of member states to enter and reside in other West African countries without a visa for at least 90 days.
There was no indication that non-West Africans would be accepted in Ghana.
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, later said Ghana was preparing to receive 40 more West African deportees from the US.
Nigerian deported to Ghana, allegedly dumped in Togo
One of the Nigerians deported from the US to Ghana has spoken of his treatment by the Mahama government.
He was among five people who were reportedly secretly transferred to Togo by the government.
The man, who spoke anonymously, told the BBC that they were informed they would be moved from a military camp to better accommodation, but they were then sent to Togo instead.
US removes visa restrictions on Ghana
YEN.com.gh reported that the US had reversed visa restrictions imposed on Ghanaians.
Ablakwa said the reversal of the restrictions took months of high-level diplomatic negotiations with the US.
The US was worried that Ghana was one of the African countries with high visa overstay rates in the US.
Proofreading by Samuel Gitonga, copy editor at YEN.com.gh.
Source: YEN.com.gh
