The Trump administration has unveiled a plan to send Kilmar Abrego, whose arrest and fight to stay in the US have become a flashpoint in its immigration crackdown, to Eswatini.
A US Department of Homeland Security official said in an email to Abrego's lawyers that Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, has replaced Uganda as the country designated for his deportation.
The official said the change was made because Abrego has stated that he fears persecution or torture in Uganda.
"That claim of fear is hard to take seriously, especially given that you have claimed (through your attorneys) that you fear persecution or torture in at least 22 different countries ... Nonetheless, we hereby notify you that your new country of removal is Eswatini, Africa," the official said in the email.
Abrego, originally from El Salvador and currently being held in an immigration detention centre in Virginia, has no ties to Eswatini, a country bordering South Africa.
The Trump administration's push to send Abrego, 30, to Eswatini is the latest twist in a saga that began in March, when US authorities accused him of being a gang member and sent him to an El Salvadoran prison despite an order from a US judge prohibiting his deportation to his native country.
Abrego was brought back in June to face criminal charges of transporting migrants living in the United States illegally. He has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have accused the administration of vindictive prosecution.
Ineligible for asylum
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security on Friday released immigration court documents that outline its arguments against Abrego applying for asylum or receiving it.
A primary argument is that Abrego is a member of a designated foreign terrorist organisation, MS-13, an allegation that Abrego denies and for which he hasn't been charged.
Abrego filed a motion in Baltimore immigration court last month to reopen his 2019 immigration case and apply for asylum again. He was denied the first time because his request came more than a year after he arrived in the US.
Abrego had fled threats of gang violence in his native El Salvador around 2011 to join his brother in Maryland. And while his first asylum request was denied, he was granted protection from deportation to El Salvador because he had established a well-founded fear of gang violence there.
Abrego, a sheet metal worker who entered the United States illegally, had been living in Maryland with his wife, their child and two of her children - all of whom are American citizens - until he was arrested and sent to El Salvador.
Abrego's lawyers have said the administration is trying to coerce him into pleading guilty.
According to court filings, the administration offered at one point to deport him to Costa Rica if he agreed to plead guilty, and said he would be sent to Uganda if he did not.
The US sent a deportation flight to Eswatini in July that DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said at the time carried "individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back."
