US still plans to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia despite Costa Rica agreement

GREENBELT, Md. – U.S. government attorneys told a federal judge Tuesday that the Department of Homeland Security still intends to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia, even though Costa Rica has agreed to accept deportees who cannot legally be returned to their home countries.

READ MORE: Judge rules ICE cannot re-detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia

What we know:

Abrego Garcia’s case has become a crisis point in the immigration debate after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador last year. Since being returned to the United States, he has been fighting a second deportation to several African countries proposed by Homeland Security officials.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland has previously barred Immigration and Customs Enforcement from deporting or detaining him, writing that the agency has no viable plan to remove him. In a February order, she described the government’s efforts as “one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success.”

Abrego Garcia argues that if he must be deported, it should be to Costa Rica, which has already agreed to take him. 

READ MORE: Kilmar Abrego Garcia heading back to Maryland after judge orders his release from ICE custody

But in a March memo, Todd Lyons, the acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, wrote that sending him to Costa Rica would be “prejudicial to the United States.” 

Lyons said the U.S. has invested government resources and political capital negotiating with Liberia to accept third‑country nationals.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Ernesto Molina, director of the Justice Department’s Office of Immigration Litigation, suggested Abrego Garcia could “remove himself” to Costa Rica.

READ MORE: Kilmar Abrego Garcia asks judge to toss smuggling case as vindictive

What’s next:

 Xinis pointed out that he is being prosecuted in Tennessee on human smuggling charges and calling it a “fantasy” to suggest he could leave the country while that case is pending. She set a briefing schedule and scheduled another hearing for April 28.

Abrego Garcia, 30, has an American wife and child and has lived in Maryland for years. He entered the U.S. illegally as a teenager. 

In 2019, an immigration judge ruled he could not be deported to El Salvador because he faced danger from a gang that had threatened his family. Despite that ruling, he was mistakenly deported there last year.

After public pressure and a court order, the Trump administration brought him back in June, but only after securing an indictment charging him with human smuggling in Tennessee. He has pleaded not guilty and asked the judge to dismiss the case.