The Trump administration has filed a motion to deport Salvadoran illegal alien and alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to Liberia, citing diplomatic assurances of humane treatment and a pending deportation order. The decision comes after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March 2024 despite a court-ordered protection finding. Abrego Garcia’s case has become a focal point in the broader clash between the Trump administration’s hardline deportation policies and Democratic efforts to block removals. His attorneys argue that the move is politically motivated, citing previous failed attempts to deport him to other countries.
According to a Department of Homeland Security filing, Abrego Garcia could be sent to the West African nation as soon as Oct. 31 to fulfill a standing deportation order against him. The filing noted that his attorneys cited more than 20 countries he allegedly fears would prosecute or torture him if he were removed there and that Liberia is not on that list. The filing highlighted that Liberia is a thriving democracy and one of the United States’s closest partners on the African continent, with a constitution that provides robust protections for human rights.
DHS said in the filing that it has received diplomatic assurances from Liberia about the humane treatment of people removed there. However, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys blasted the administration’s latest move as political retribution, arguing the latest deportation plan is part of a pattern of punitive deportation tactics. ABREGO GARCIA RELEASED FROM JAIL, WILL RETURN TO MARYLAND TO AWAIT TRIAL
Abrego Garcia’s legal team, led by attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, stated that the administration’s latest move is part of a broader pattern of punitive deportation tactics. ‘After failed attempts with Uganda, Eswatini, and Ghana, ICE now seeks to deport our client, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, to Liberia, a country with which he has no connection, thousands of miles from his family and home in Maryland,’ Sandoval-Moshenberg said in a statement, according to The Associated Press.
The case has also drawn the attention of Senator Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., a staunch supporter of Abrego Garcia. Van Hollen, who visited El Salvador in April to meet Abrego Garcia in prison, has led the effort to get him released. ‘The Trump Administration has been desperately shopping for faraway countries they can ship Kilmar Abrego Garcia to in order to deny his constitutional due process right to defend himself against the charges they have brought,’ Van Hollen said in a statement.
Abrego Garcia entered the U.S. illegally in 2011 and was issued a deportation order in 2019. Two previous judges found he was likely affiliated with MS-13. However, Trump administration officials acknowledged in court that his deportation had been an administrative error, although some top Trump officials said he was correctly removed and contended he’s a member of the notorious MS-13 gang. MS-13 LEADER TRUMP CROSSHAIR SENTENCED IN RACKETEERING CASE INVOLVING 8 LONG ISLAND MURDERS
The latest move to deport him comes as Abrego Garcia remains in immigration detention in Pennsylvania. A federal judge in Maryland previously barred his immediate deportation while reviewing claims that the government is retaliating against him for successfully challenging his wrongful removal earlier this year. The same judge wrote in an October order that his prosecution ‘may stem from retaliation by the DOJ and DHS,’ while a separate case in Tennessee over human smuggling charges is still pending.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.