Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to deport Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to Liberia as soon as Oct. 31, after three other African countries declined to receive him.
The Trump administration notified a federal judge in Maryland on Friday that it intended to deport Abrego Garcia to the West African country, which it said had agreed to accept him.
“Federal Defendants have received diplomatic assurances regarding the treatment of third country individuals removed to Liberia from the United States and are making the final necessary arrangements for Petitioner’s removal,” Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate wrote in the court filing. “Defendants expect to provide the requisite formal notice of the new designation of Liberia to Petitioner later today.”
Abrego Garcia has no ties to Liberia, according to one of his attorneys.
He was mistakenly deported to his native El Salvador in March, capturing national attention. The Trump administration brought him back to the U.S. in June to face human-smuggling charges — to which he pleaded not guilty — and has sought to deport him to multiple countries without success.
He reunited with his family for a weekend in Maryland before ICE took him into custody on Aug. 25, and he has been detained ever since while fighting his deportation.
During an Oct. 10 hearing in federal court challenging the lawfulness of his ICE detention, Abrego Garcia’s legal team said he was ready to leave the country for Costa Rica. He previously rejected a plea deal to go to the country under the condition that he plead guilty to the human-smuggling charges.
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Abrego Garcia’s attorneys, said the government’s choice to send his client to Liberia instead of Costa Rica was designed to inflict maximum hardship. The attorney also expressed concern about the possibility of Liberian officials deporting Abrego Garcia to El Salvador.
“Having struck out 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.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who is presiding over the suit challenging his detention, repeatedly clashed with attorneys representing the federal government — first, over their initial refusal to bring Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador and, most recently, over their failure to produce information about ICE’s plan to deport him.
The announcement of the second deportation comes two weeks after a hearing during which an ICE removals operations official testified that the three African countries to which the Trump administration had threatened to send Abrego Garcia — Uganda, Eswatini and Ghana — had declined to receive him.
Liberia’s foreign minister, Sara Beysolow Nyanti, met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Oct. 16, according to a press release from the country’s ministry of foreign affairs. At the meeting, the countries agreed to strengthen Liberia’s ability to manage migration issues. The U.S. Department of State plays an integral role in coordinating efforts to deport people to third countries.
This article has been updated with a statement from Abrego Garcia’s lawyer.