The Trump administration on Friday asked a federal judge to rescind her order blocking the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia.
Garcia’s case has been one of the most closely-watched cases in the debate over President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement policies.
CBS News reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) filed a motion arguing that U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis should dissolve her order preventing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from deporting Garcia, an Salvadoran national, to Liberia.
The Trump administration said it is ready to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia and asked U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis to dissolve her order blocking that from happening. In a motion filed Friday, the Department of Homeland Security said the order is the only impediment currently preventing the U.S. from carrying out Abrego Garcia's deportation.
Legal filings submitted by the administration indicated that Liberia's government remains willing to accept Abrego Garcia and that Immigration and Customs Enforcement could arrange a charter plane to send him to the West African country in roughly five days.
In a declaration, an ICE official said the agency is "confident that Mr. Abrego Garcia's removal would be imminent" if Xinis were to lift her order. The administration similarly said in its new court filing that the government is prepared to remove Abrego Garcia from the U.S. "in an extremely expeditious manner" once it has been dissolved, and asked that Xinis issue a ruling on the motion by April 17.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who had been living in Maryland with his family, was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March 2025. The Trump administration had said Abrego Garcia was a member of the gang MS-13, which Abrego Garcia has denied.
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The administration said the contractor handling removals to Liberia has already created a “mock itinerary” showing that Garcia could be on a charter flight within five days of the government’s request. Liberia has already formally agreed to accept him, according to ABC News.
The Justice Department warned that “any attempt by this Court to permanently enjoin the government from exercising its authority to remove the Petitioner from this country is in direct contradiction to established judicial norms, and a clear error of law.”
Garcia’s case started in March 2025 when immigration authorities arrested him in Maryland and deported him to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison known for human rights abuses. A judge issued a 2019 order barring Garcia’s deportation to his home country because of concerns that he might be targeted by violent gangs.
Garcia had been living in Maryland with his wife and children. A federal judge ordered the administration to return him to the United States. The Supreme Court later upheld this order and he returned in June.
The Justice Department then obtained a federal grand jury indictment against Garcia for human smuggling. The case was tied to a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. He pleaded not guilty and another federal judge found that the DOJ brought the charges with a vindictive motive. Judge Xinis ordered Garcia’s release in December, ruling that he was being unlawfully held.
It doesn’t seem likely that Judge Xinis will grant the White House’s request. She has repeatedly ruled against the administration on Garcia’s case and noted that it has “made one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success.”
Garcia’s attorneys argued that there is no reason to send him to Liberia because Costa Rica, which granted him asylum status, offered to accept him.
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