Kilmar Ábrego Garcia back in court as US seeks deportation to Liberia

Kilmar Ábrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, was due back in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Tuesday as the U.S. government continues its attempt to deport him to the West African country of Liberia. The government is moving to vacate a preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis that prevents Immigration and Customs Enforcement from detaining and deporting him to Liberia, while his legal team is seeking to make the injunction permanent, according to AP-based reports. The case, the documents say, is part of an 18-month saga that began when he was mistakenly sent to El Salvador. [ 1 , 2 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ]

Ábrego Garcia had been living in Maryland with his wife and children. He was deported in March 2025 to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation there, ABC News reported, which cited a fear of persecution; CBS News said the order was based on the risk that he could be harmed by local gangs. The administration said he was a member of the MS-13 gang, which he denies. After the Supreme Court upheld a ruling that he should be returned, he was brought back in June 2025 to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee, and Judge Xinis released him from ICE custody, ABC News reported. In May, a federal judge dismissed the indictment, finding the investigation had been tainted “with a vindictive motive,” and UPI reported the government has appealed. [ 3 , 4 , 7 ]

On Liberia, CBS News reported that the administration said in March that it was ready to deport him there and asked Judge Xinis to dissolve her order blocking his removal. In court filings, the administration said Liberia's government was willing to accept him and that ICE could arrange a charter plane to send him to the West African country in a matter of days. Liberia is among the countries that have agreed to accept non-native immigrants from the U.S., CBS News reported, and it said the administration began sending deportees from Latin America there in August; deportees it interviewed described being in limbo and feeling stateless. ABC News reported that government officials have previously named Eswatini, Liberia and Uganda as potential destinations. [ 3 , 4 , 7 ]

Ábrego Garcia has said that if he were going to be deported it should be to Costa Rica, which previously agreed to take him and has indicated it would provide refugee status or residency. But Todd Lyons, the former acting ICE director, said in a March 2026 memo that deporting him to Costa Rica would be “prejudicial to the United States,” because the U.S. had expended resources and political capital negotiating with Liberia to accept third-country nationals, and AP-based reports say the push for Liberia continued even after the U.S. signed an agreement with Costa Rica to accept deportees who cannot legally be returned to their home countries. UPI, however, reported that a Justice Department lawyer told the court there were no discussions about sending him to Costa Rica. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ]

His lawyers argue the government is punishing him for challenging his earlier removal. “What is unconstitutional is the Government's insistence on punitively removing him to an African country — to which he has no connection and has asserted a fear of persecution or torture,” they said in a July court filing cited by ABC News. UPI quoted a filing saying “the record in this case shows that the government is trying to abuse its immigration powers to punish” him. Jossie Flor Sapunar, national communications director for the activist group We Are CASA, said the government “continues to punish him for pursuing his constitutional rights and seeks to ship him to Liberia,” adding that he “has become an international symbol of due process.” The group said it intended to be at the courthouse. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 5 , 6 , 7 ]