The Trump administration is seeking to deport Abrego Garcia to the West African country over protests from lawyers.
Published on October 27, 2025
A federal judge in the United States has asked for assurances from President Donald Trump’s administration that the officers will not be deported. Kilmar Abrego Garcia His deportation order remains in place.
District Judge Paula Zinis made the request Monday after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last week filed a notice of plans to deport Abrego Garcia to the West African nation of Liberia.
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She asked that the government not instead deport Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica, a Salvadoran man living in the United States, where he has said he is willing to go because the government there will welcome him as a legal immigrant and not be sent back to El Salvador.
“Can you provide any insight as to why we are continuing this hearing when you can deport him to a third country tomorrow?” Xinis asked the public prosecutor.
Abrego Garcia was wrongfully deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration in violation of a March 2019 court order preventing him from being deported back to his home country.
He was returned to the U.S. by a judge’s order in June, but was charged with human trafficking in Tennessee. He is seeking to quash the case.
Administration officials have repeatedly accused Abrego Garcia of being a member of the MS-13 gang, a claim that has never been proven in court.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers say he is being targeted as a political vendetta.
Responding to the plan to deport Abrego Garcia to Liberia, lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moschenberg called the move “cruel and unconstitutional.” He noted that Abrego Garcia has no ties to the country.
The Trump administration has repeatedly sought to deport individuals unable to be repatriated to so-called third countries. Advocacy groups have argued that deportations violate due process rights and that migrants are being sent to countries with a long history of human rights abuses.
Abrego Garcia has independently applied for asylum in the US.