GREENBELT, Md. — The Trump administration went through unusual channels to select Uganda as the final destination should Kilmar Abrego Garcia be deported, a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official testified Friday.

John Schultz, deputy assistant director for removal management at ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division, said typically when ICE seeks to deport an individual to a country other than the one they’re from – known as a third-country removal – the agency will reach out to the State Department to make the selection. But in Abrego Garcia’s case, Schultz said, he was told the administration had selected the African nation of Uganda in a phone call with a staff member of the Homeland Security Council (HSC).

The HSC exists within the Executive Off

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