Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and why has the US failed to deport him to Africa?

When the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) listed Ghana as a potential destination for a deportee named Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the news went viral and sparked outrage and confusion.

However, on October 10, 2025, Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, denied that any such arrangement existed to receive Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

But the question many are asking is “Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia?” And why has his deportation become a tangled international issue involving the White House, the US Supreme Court, and several African countries?

US government backtracks on decision to deport Salvadoran to Ghana

Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia?

According to a BBC article published in April 2025, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a 29-year-old from El Salvador who entered the United States illegally in 2012.

He settled in Maryland, where he worked in construction and raised three children with his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura.

For years, he lived quietly until 2019, when police in Hyattsville, Maryland, detained him and three others in a Home Depot parking lot.

Officers claimed the men were “loitering” and later identified them as members of the MS-13 gang, a transnational criminal organisation with roots in El Salvador.

The allegation was based on a “Gang Field Interview Sheet” in which officers described his clothing as “indicative of Hispanic gang culture.”

They said his Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie design were symbols linked to MS-13.

However, experts disagree. Steven Dudley, a journalist who has studied MS-13 extensively, told the BBC that while the Chicago Bulls logo had at times been associated with gang symbolism, it was “far too common and popular to be taken as proof of gang membership.”

The White House has also alleged that tattoos on Abrego Garcia’s hands, a marijuana leaf, a smiley face, a cross and a skull, are gang symbols, an allegation that Trump repeated in an interview with ABC News journalist Terry Moran.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia has consistently denied belonging to MS-13, and there is no record of him ever being convicted of gang-related crimes, either in the US or El Salvador.

‘We are not accepting him!’ – Ablakwa on deportation of Salvadoran by US government to Ghana

A disputed deportation

Despite the lack of criminal convictions, US immigration judges deemed the information from police and an anonymous source credible enough to deny Garcia bail.

He remained in custody and later applied for asylum, citing fear of persecution from a rival gang, Barrio-18, if sent back to El Salvador.

In October 2019, he was granted a “withholding of removal” order, a legal protection that prevents deportation to a country where the person might face harm.

Though not the same as asylum, it allowed him to stay in the US under supervision.

For several years, Kilmar Abrego Garcia complied with immigration check-ins without incident. But in March 2025, he was suddenly deported, and something multiple courts later ruled was done in error.

Judges, including those at the US Supreme Court, said the government should “facilitate” his return to Maryland.

President Donald Trump, however, has refused to act on that ruling. He insists Garcia is an MS-13 member and has said publicly that he “will never live in the US again,” despite acknowledging he has the power to bring him back.

Controversial allegations

There were two other allegations that surfaced after Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s deportation. In 2021, his wife filed for a protective order, claiming he had physically attacked her on multiple occasions.

She later withdrew the petition, saying they had resolved their issues through counselling and that her husband was “a loving partner and father.”

In April 2025, the White House press secretary also accused Kilmar Abrego Garcia of involvement in human trafficking, referencing a 2022 incident reported by a conservative news outlet, The Tennessee Star.

The report said he was stopped for speeding in Tennessee while transporting eight other people in his car.

DHS documents noted that none of the passengers had luggage, raising suspicions of trafficking.

But once again, no criminal charges were filed. His wife said the passengers were construction workers he was transporting between job sites, something he mostly did as part of his work.

Why Africa?

With El Salvador legally off-limits due to Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s protection order, the Trump administration has reportedly struggled to find a country willing to accept him.

Testimony in the US federal court revealed that attempts to send him to Uganda and Eswatini fell through.

On October 10, 2025, international media outlets reported that DHS had identified Ghana as a possible destination. But Ghana’s government immediately rejected the idea.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa took to Facebook to clarify the situation, saying Ghana had “never agreed to receive Garcia” and that DHS had since “complied” with the country’s position.

He mentioned that Ghana’s humanitarian policy of accepting limited numbers of non-criminal West African migrants “does not, and will not apply to persons from other regions or those facing criminal allegations.”

A diplomatic and legal dead end

Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case now sits in a diplomatic and legal limbo. The US government cannot legally return him to El Salvador, the country of his birth, due to the risk of persecution. At the same time, no third country is willing to take him as of yet.

Meanwhile, catch this week’s episode of Nkommo Wo Ho, packed with showbiz gist and street buzz here!

AK/MA