Federal prosecutors informed a Maryland judge on Tuesday that immigration officials remain committed to sending Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia, even though Costa Rica has reached a new arrangement to take in deportees who cannot return to their native countries.
The immigration case involving the Salvadoran citizen has drawn significant attention after authorities incorrectly sent him back to El Salvador in the previous year. Following his return to the United States, Abrego Garcia has been challenging a second removal attempt to various African nations that Department of Homeland Security officials have proposed.
Maryland U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis had previously prohibited Immigration and Customs Enforcement from removing or holding Abrego Garcia in detention. In February, she criticized the agency for lacking a realistic removal strategy, describing “one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success.”
While Abrego Garcia has maintained he should be sent to Costa Rica if deportation proceeds, given that country’s previous acceptance, Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, stated in a March memorandum that sending him there would be “prejudicial to the United States.” Lyons argued that Liberia remains the appropriate destination because federal officials have invested significant resources and diplomatic efforts in negotiations with the West African country to accept individuals from third countries.
During Tuesday’s court proceedings before Judge Xinis, Ernesto Molina, who leads the Justice Department’s Office of Immigration Litigation, suggested Abrego Garcia could “remove himself” to Costa Rica.
Judge Xinis noted that federal prosecutors are simultaneously pursuing human smuggling charges against him in Tennessee, calling it a “fantasy” to suggest self-removal while criminal proceedings remain active. The judge established deadlines for legal briefs on the issue and scheduled the next hearing for April 28.
The 30-year-old Abrego Garcia, who has an American spouse and child, has resided in Maryland for several years after entering the United States without authorization as a minor. In 2019, an immigration court determined he could not be returned to El Salvador due to gang threats against his family there. However, he was erroneously deported to that country last year anyway.
Under public scrutiny and judicial pressure, the Trump administration retrieved him in June, but only after obtaining a Tennessee indictment on human smuggling allegations. Abrego Garcia has entered a not guilty plea and requested dismissal of those charges.
