The Uganda government's decision to accept to babysit a man at the centre of US President Donald Trump's war on migrants is already shameful enough, says General David Sejusa, but even after the "disagrace", the country still has to face the ignominy of being found "unworthy to keep an American criminal".
Sejusa, one of the most celebrated military officers in the NRA liberation plot and a former spymaster, says a US federal judge's order that the Trump administration keep Kilmar Abrego Garcia in the United States under the court pronounces itself on his deportation to Ugandam has only added to Uganda's humiliation.
Posting on X after news report that US District Judge Paula Xinis had spoken of stopping the planned deportation, Gen Sejusa wondered why Uganda was getting involved in "these shameful things."
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"What has happened to this country?" he asked. "No pride left, no ideological sensibilities left, no moral fibre left, no SHAME AT ALL? And even after our fall still, we are found UNWORTHY to keep an American criminal? What's happening to us?"
The Trump administration has warned it could send Abrego Garcia to Uganda as soon as this week.
Judge Xinis said during a brief hearing Monday afternoon that she's planning to stretch out an existing hold on Abrego Garcia's removal so she can more fully consider whether officials are violating his due process rights, including by deporting him to Uganda even after he said he fears being persecuted or tortured in the African nation.
Minutes after Abrego Garcia was taken into custody by immigration officials in Baltimore on Monday, his attorneys filed a new lawsuit urging Xinis to order his release and slow down his removal process so he can have a chance to challenge his potential deportation to Uganda.
Abrego Garcia is currently being held at a detention facility in Virginia, his attorney said.
Under that new order, the judge said, the government will be "absolutely forbidden to remove Abrego Garcia from the continental United States."
Xinis said she was also worried that sending Abrego Garcia to Uganda would result in an "end run" around a court order barring him from again being sent to El Salvador.
It's unclear how long the new pause will last, but it's likely to remain in effect through at least later this week.
The judge has said she wants to receive more written legal arguments from the Justice Department and Abrego Garcia's attorneys.
She's also planning to hold an evidentiary hearing with witnesses in coming days.
According to a CNN report, prosecutors referenced Uganda in the context of Trump-era immigration strategies, particularly around third-country resettlement and cooperation with foreign governments.
While the details remain limited, the mention has placed Uganda in the spotlight as part of the broader conversation about how the United States engaged African states in its restrictive immigration framework.
The development has prompted renewed scrutiny of Uganda's long-standing role as a host nation for refugees. With more than 1.6 million refugees, largely from South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda is regarded by the United Nations as one of the world's most generous asylum regimes.
The country allows refugees to work, move freely, and access public services, a model often cited as progressive.
Yet, critics argue that Uganda's cooperation with Western countries on migration has occasionally raised questions about sovereignty, transparency, and the pressures placed on domestic systems already stretched by hosting such a large refugee population.
Analysts in Kampala say the reference to Uganda in Trump's case may reignite discussions about whether African countries, including Uganda, were drawn into controversial US immigration policies during his presidency.
Observers also note that the mention of Uganda, even in passing, underscores how domestic political battles in the US can ripple outward, pulling African nations into narratives over which they have little control.
For many Ugandans, the priority remains how such global developments affect local livelihoods, refugee services, and the country's image on the international stage.
As Trump's trial continues, it remains unclear how prominently Uganda will feature in testimony or filings.
But the fact that its name has entered the proceedings highlights the intertwined nature of global politics -- and how Uganda's policies and partnerships are being watched far beyond its borders.
Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was unlawfully deported to El Salvador earlier this year, was taken into custody by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement after turning himself in to a facility in Baltimore.
"Regardless of what happens today in my ICE check-in, promise me this," Abrego Garcia said at a rally with members of his family, immigration activists and community leaders before reporting to the ICE facility on Monday.
"Promise me that you will continue to pray, continue to fight, resist and love, not just for me, but for everybody."
Abrego Garcia returned home at the end of last week from Tennessee, where he was being held pending trial in a federal human smuggling case.
He argues he is being threatened with deportation to Uganda as punishment for his decision to challenge his unlawful removal to El Salvador in March, as well as his decision to go to trial in a human smuggling case brought against him in Tennessee.
His attorneys provided Xinis, an appointee of President Barack Obama, with a copy of notices Abrego Garcia sent over the weekend to immigration officials that said he has a fear of being sent to Uganda and that he preferred to be sent to Costa Rica, a country that has said it would be willing to give him some form of legal status should he be sent there.
"I fear persecution in Uganda on account of my race, nationality, political opinion, and membership in a particular social group. I also fear torture by or at the acquiescence of a public official in that country," Abrego Garcia wrote in the notice sent Saturday.
"Finally, I fear that country will refoul me (re-deport me) to El Salvador, where I also fear persecution on account of the above-mentioned protected grounds and torture by or at the acquiescence of a public official, and where I have been tortured in the past," he wrote.
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Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, the chief of organizing and leadership at CASA, the group behind the rally outside the ICE facility on Monday, argued that Abrego Garcia is being made a "martyr for having the courage to stand up to this administration's illegal deportation practices."
"They're throwing the entire federal apparatus at one father of three to prove that no one should dare challenge their authority," she continued in a statement.
The Trump administration brought Abrego Garcia back to the US in June to face the federal charges after sending him in mid-March to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador, in violation of a 2019 court order that prohibited his removal to the Central American country.
Activists joining Abrego Garcia on Monday morning accuse the Trump administration of "retaliating" against him for fighting against his deportation and trying to exercise his constitutional rights.
"The only reason that they've chosen to take him into detention is to punish him," his lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said.
Abrego Garcia's lawyers also argued in court papers Saturday that offers by the administration to eventually deport him to Costa Rica in exchange for his guilty plea were evidence of the government's effort to punish him for challenging his wrongful deportation.
They told the judge in his criminal case that their client had until Monday morning "to accept a plea in exchange for deportation to Costa Rica, or else that offer will be off the table forever."
