Washington DC - The US government intends to deport a Salvadoran man at ground zero of President Donald Trump's war on undocumented immigration to Uganda next week, his lawyers said Saturday.

In a filing, the lawyers asked courts to dismiss the case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia on grounds that it is a vindictive attempt to punish him for challenging his initial deportation to El Salvador.

The attempt to deport Garcia to far-flung Uganda in East Africa adds a dramatic new twist to a saga that has become a test case for Trump's harsh crackdown on illegal immigration – and, critics say, his trampling of the law.

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His lawyers' filing was an addition to an earlier one asking judges to dismiss the case.

Word of the new press to deport him came a day after he was freed and allowed to go home to Maryland pending trial on human smuggling charges.

This followed a torturous saga in which he was mistakenly deported to a notoriously rough prison in El Salvador, then returned to US soil only to be detained again.

A judge ordered his release Friday, but the latest news means he might again be expelled, this time to Uganda under a new, harsh Trump administration scheme of sending undocumented migrants to distant, even war-torn countries where they know no one.

Abrego Garcia denies any wrongdoing, while the administration claims he is a violent MS-13 gang member who smuggled other immigrants.

On Thursday, when it became clear Abrego Garcia would be released the following day, government officials made him a plea offer: remain in custody, plead guilty to human smuggling charges, and be deported to Costa Rica, his lawyers said in the filing. He declined the offer.

"The government immediately responded to Mr. Abrego's release with outrage," the filing states.

"Despite... assurances from the government of Costa Rica that Mr. Abrego would be accepted there, within minutes of his release from pretrial custody, an [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] representative informed Mr. Abrego's counsel that the government intended to deport Mr. Abrego to Uganda and ordered him to report to ICE's Baltimore Field Office Monday morning," it added.