“Although Petitioner has identified more than twenty countries that he purports to fear would persecute or torture him if he were removed there, Liberia is not on that list,” the Department of Justice (DOJ) filing said.
The filing also said that “Liberia is a thriving democracy and one of the United States’s closest partners on the African continent,” and noted that the country’s national language is English.
Previous attempts to send Abrego Garcia to various African nations have failed, but Liberia has agreed to take him. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could deport him by Oct. 31, the DOJ said.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers want assurances that Liberia will not try to deport him back to his native El Salvador, where he may face threats of gang violence; U.S. officials have said he is a member of the MS-13 gang, but he denies that affiliation.
His attorneys said he also fears being sent to nearly every country in Central and South America, but has expressed willingness to be deported to Costa Rica.
“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,” his attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said.
“Costa Rica stands ready to accept him as a refugee, a viable and lawful option,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said. “Yet, the government has chosen a course calculated to inflict maximum hardship. These actions are punitive, cruel, and unconstitutional.”
The DOJ filing was submitted two weeks after an Oct. 10 hearing in which Maryland District Judge Paula Xinis sought to probe the government’s plans for Abrego Garcia, while his lawyers pressed for him to be released.
His attorneys have argued that U.S. law allows illegal immigrants to be detained for up to 90 days, but only pending deportation.
Immigration authorities arrested Abrego Garcia in March, and he was subsequently sent to El Salvador’s maximum security CECOT prison. Shortly after, it came to light that an immigration judge blocked him from being deported to El Salvador in 2019.
On April 10, Xinis ordered the government to bring him back to the U.S., and the Supreme Court upheld that ruling. He has been in and out of custody since his initial arrest.
In addition to the government’s push to deport him, Abrego Garcia is facing charges of human smuggling. He denied the allegations, and a trial is scheduled for January 2026. A judge in Nashville will hear arguments on Nov. 3 for a motion to dismiss the case.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
