Federal attorneys have revealed that they have now met every requirement to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia and are urging a judge to lift the order preventing his removal.
The Justice Department told a Maryland federal court on Friday that officials had secured assurances from Liberia guaranteeing Abrego Garcia would not face persecution or torture there. The filing also states that an immigration officer reviewed his fear-based claims about returning to the West African nation and ruled against him.
Abrego Garcia’s case has drawn national attention after his wrongful deportation to El Salvador earlier this year ignited criticism of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. His lawyers argue that the administration’s renewed efforts to deport him are punitive, designed to retaliate for his earlier legal victory challenging that mistaken deportation.
In a separate motion filed the same day, his attorneys said Abrego Garcia already designated Costa Rica as the country willing to accept him. They assert the government is bound by that designation and that its continued push to send him elsewhere violates his due process rights. The attempt to redirect his deportation, they claim, is evidence of retaliation.
Abrego Garcia, who has lived in Maryland for years with his American wife and child, entered the United States illegally from El Salvador as a teenager. An immigration judge in 2019 granted him protection from deportation after determining he faced danger in his home country. But in March, immigration officials sent him to El Salvador anyway, later calling it an administrative mistake. Under court pressure, the administration returned him to the U.S. in June, only to pursue deportation to a third country.
His legal team’s current challenge centers on due process. They maintain that immigrants with established ties to the United States are entitled to stronger constitutional protections than those at the border. Citing a 2020 Supreme Court ruling, his lawyers argue that “‘aliens who have established connections in this country’ have greater due process rights than ‘an alien at the threshold of initial entry.’”
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They also claim that Abrego Garcia is entitled to an immigration judge’s review of the officer’s conclusion that he is unlikely to face persecution or torture in Liberia. The defense contends that the officer failed to consider that Liberia could in turn deport him to El Salvador and that the Liberian government has only agreed to take him temporarily.
The government rejects those arguments, insisting that its assurances from Liberia meet the Secretary of State’s requirements and that the court has no authority to interfere in matters of foreign diplomacy.
“This Court should therefore dissolve its preliminary injunction and permit Petitioner to be removed to Liberia,” government attorneys wrote.
Separately, Abrego Garcia is facing human smuggling charges in federal court in Tennessee. He has pleaded not guilty and asked for the case to be dismissed, arguing it stems from “selective or vindictive prosecution.” A hearing on that motion is scheduled for December 8, according to AP’s report.
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