Federal Judge Pushes Off Deportation of Abrego Garcia

The Trump administration will not be able to deport Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia this week as planned.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who put a hold on Abrego Garcia’s removal while she considers his case claiming his immigration detention is unlawful and punitive, set a hearing in the case for Nov. 21 — meaning he will remain in the U.S. as his legal battles continue.

Abrego Garcia, who the Trump administration first deported to his native El Salvador in March, has a pending asylum claim. He is also facing criminal charges for alleged human smuggling, to which he pleaded not guilty.

Despite the pending cases, the Trump administration aimed to deport Abrego Garcia to Liberia this week. It’s the fourth African country where immigration officials have said they planned to send Abrego Garcia. His attorneys have labeled the effort to send him to countries where he has no ties as a punishment for the attention his initial deportation received.

Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Abrego Garcia’s attorneys, said he hadn’t received assurances that he wouldn’t face detention in Liberia.

“It’s not enough that they agree to take him for a short period of time, and then from there, would redeport him on to El Salvador after that sort of period of time expires,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said during a status hearing Monday. “So we’re certainly not, at this point, willing to sort of lay down arms as it were.”

Both Abrego Garcia’s attorneys and Department of Justice attorneys wanted Xinis to schedule the next hearing in late November.

Xinis appeared skeptical on Monday about the federal government following through on deporting him to Liberia, which it notified the court about on Friday. She also pressed Deputy Attorney General Drew Ensign on whether the Trump administration would deport him despite her order.

Her doubts come after an ICE official testified in court on Oct. 10 that Eswatini and Uganda had declined to accept Abrego Garcia, and Ghana’s foreign minister publicly rejected the attempt to deport him there.

“Obviously we wouldn’t do so if there was a court order prohibiting it, but if there were no prohibition, I’ve been told we would remove him on Friday,” Ensign said.

But Ensign told Xinis he didn’t know what would happen to Abrego Garcia’s criminal case on human smuggling charges the federal government brought against him after his return to the U.S.

“I don’t believe a criminal case can go forward if there’s no defendant,” Xinis said.

There is also a hearing scheduled next week in the criminal case in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. The judge overseeing that case, Waverly Crenshaw, barred on Monday Department of Homeland Security and DOJ officials from making prejudicial statements about Abrego Garcia.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have a Friday deadline to appeal an immigration judge’s decision not to reopen his asylum case.