Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys petitioned the U.S. District Court in Maryland on Nov. 7 to lift its injunction prohibiting Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s deportation to Liberia.
Abrego Garcia was born in El Salvador, illegally immigrated to Maryland as a teenager around 2011, and was then deported to his home country in March, only to be returned to the United States in June due to an “administrative error,” but still to face deportation orders and further charges related to alleged human smuggling.
The Nov. 7 motion from the government said officials have received assurances from Liberia that Abrego Garcia would not face persecution or torture there.
A court decision otherwise would mean intervening in foreign diplomacy, the domain of the executive branch, DOJ lawyers said.
“This Court should therefore dissolve its preliminary injunction and permit Petitioner to be removed to Liberia,” they argued in the motion.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys argued in a separate Nov. 7 filing that their client has not received sufficient due process, and that the administration was pursuing sending Abrego Garcia to Liberia as “vindictive and selective prosecution” in retaliation for him successfully challenging his deportation.
They said that Costa Rica had already said it was willing to accept Abrego Garcia as a refugee, but that the administration would only agree to send him to Costa Rica if he agreed to plead guilty to human trafficking charges in a Tennessee federal court.
The government argues that due process rights were extended to him through the review by a Baltimore immigration judge on his second asylum application and that Liberia was not identified among the 20 countries that Abrego Garcia had reported fear of persecution or torture.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys say that “’aliens who have established connections in this country’ have greater due process rights than ‘an alien at the threshold of initial entry,’” citing a 2020 Supreme Court case while arguing that an immigration judge should review the immigration officer’s determination that he is unlikely to be persecuted or tortured in Liberia.
They expressed concerns that the Liberian government may deport their client to El Salvador at a future date.
Abrego Garcia has expressed concerns that he may face threats of gang violence if returned to El Salvador. U.S. officials have accused him of being a member of the MS-13 gang, which he denies.
Prior Error, New Charges
The Trump administration admitted that there was an “administrative error” in Abrego Garcia’s deportation to El Salvador on March 15.
The federal government returned him to the United States on June 6.
He was held in a Tennessee facility before he was released on bail on Aug. 22 and allowed to return to Maryland. He was re-arrested on Aug. 25 during his mandatory ICE check-in a few days later and transferred to an ICE detention center in Farmville, Virginia, and then to a processing facility in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania.
Since he recently reentered the United States from El Salvador, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys submitted a new application for asylum, which was rejected by an immigration judge in Baltimore on Oct. 1.
The decision can be appealed through the Board of Immigration Appeals, which Tennessee Judge Waverly Crenshaw said had a “realistic likelihood” of being seen as a vindictive act of retaliation.
A hearing on the Tennessee motion is set for Dec. 8.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
