U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is holding Kilmar Abrego Garcia in a Virginia detention center after taking him into custody Monday morning in Baltimore, his attorney told a federal judge Monday afternoon.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, the same judge that heard a separate civil case brought by Abrego Garcia’s family earlier this year challenging his March removal to El Salvador, gave a verbal order during a 2 p.m. call between parties that the government not transfer him to another facility in the interest of maintaining his access to legal counsel for both pending civil and criminal cases.

She also sought assurance from Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign, who was representing the government, that ICE would comply with two separate court orders barring the Salvadoran native and Beltsville resident’s removal from the continental U.S.

“My understanding ... is that a removal is not imminent, that third country removals take time,” said Ensign, who acknowledged the orders.

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed Monday it was preparing to remove Abrego Garcia to Uganda, a plan that, according to a separate court filing last week, was put in place after he declined a plea deal in his criminal case. As part of the deal, officials offered assurance they would remove him to Costa Rica, a largely peaceful Central American country that would offer him residency, if he pled guilty to criminal smuggling charges and served any sentence imposed by the court.

After Abrego Garcia, 30, was taken into ICE custody Monday, attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg announced a new lawsuit.

Xinis said there was nothing in the record to suggest that the government of Uganda had made similar assurances as Costa Rica, like offering residency and a promise not to deport Abrego Garcia to El Salvador. In 2019, Abrego Garcia received court protection from deportation to his home country due to likely gang persecution, but such “withholding of removal” does not prevent removal to a third country willing to accept him.

“Again, government can certainly right the ship by showing me how it is that Uganda has made such representation that Mr. Abrego Garcia’s freedom will [not] be curtailed, that he will not be subject to torture or persecution, or that he would otherwise not be refouled to El Salvador,” Xinis said.

Monday morning, a defiant crowd of local lawmakers, clergy and advocates rallied in front of the George H. Fallon Federal Building that houses the Baltimore ICE field office as Abrego Garcia prepared to present himself for a scheduled check-in.

“I can say today with pride that I am free,” he told the crowd, speaking calmly and standing next to his wife. Roughly an hour later, he was detained.

“From our point of view, the only country they can lawfully send him to is a country that has provided credible assurances that they’re not going to re-deport him into El Salvador,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said.

It would be highly unusual to send Abrego Garcia to Uganda, according to Andrea Flores, vice president of Immigration Policy & Campaigns at FWD.us, a D.C.-based nonprofit advocacy organization for immigration and criminal justice reform.

Flores, a former DHS official, said sending a citizen of a non-African country to Uganda, a country on the Travel Advisory list from the U.S. Department of State with documented human rights abuses, “is truly unheard of.”

“They are making an example and attempting to scare every immigrant in this country to self deport by showing what the full force and weight of the federal government can do,” Flores said. “It is retaliatory, and it is an abuse of power.”

On Monday, immigration experts, advocates and government officials weighed in about what transpired earlier at the ICE check-in.

“We just didn’t witness injustice, we witnessed pure inhumanity and cruelty at the hands of our government,” said Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, chief of organizing and leadership of CASA, an immigrant advocacy organization. Walther-Rodriguez was with Abrego Garcia when he parted from his family just before being taken into ICE custody.

“Today, I witnessed a wife, and a brother have to say goodbye to each other. While what seemed like over a dozen, mostly masked ICE agents, rip Kilmar away from them,” Walther-Rodriguez said. “Not even seconds later, we heard those ICE agents laugh behind the closed door that separated the family.”

Mentioning that Gov. Wes Moore “early on” reached out and personally spoke with Abrego Garcia’s three children, Walther-Rodriguez called on the additional support of elected leaders to intercede on behalf of the Maryland man.

Y. Maria Martinez, special secretary of the Governor’s Office of Small, Minority & Women Business Affairs, attended the rally earlier in the morning and later spoke to The Banner on behalf of the Miller-Moore administration.

“In the State of Maryland, we believe in the Constitution. In the State of Maryland, we believe that everyone deserves their right to due process,” she said. “That means everyone gets clear notice of the charges against them, everyone gets their day in court, and court decisions must be honored.”

In a press release, Sen. Angela Alsobrooks said the Trump administration is “callously using Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a pawn and a distraction.”

“We live in a nation of laws, and as much as Trump may hate it, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is entitled to due process,” she added.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security continued Monday to call Abrego Garcia a dangerous gang member and human trafficker, allegations it has lodged against him in a federal court in Tennessee. He has pleaded not guilty.

“President Trump is not going to allow this illegal alien, who is an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator, to terrorize American citizens any longer,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in an emailed news release.

As the rally was wrapping up Monday morning, Baltimore City Councilman Mark Parker said the more the government tries to avoid a trial, “the more it looks to everyone like all of that is just lies and isn’t true.”

“The reason we have due process is to try to sort out all of the misinformation, all of the lies, all the truths, and get to some approximation of what actually happened,” he said. “It’s not simply about Kilmar, it’s about everyone and our right to live in this country and expect the justice the Constitution promises us.”