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The Trump administration said it could soon deport Salvadoran illegal immigrant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the African nation of Liberia after reaching an agreement with that country, according to a Department of Homeland Security filing Friday.
The court filing said that Abrego Garcia could be sent to the West African nation as soon as Oct. 31 to fulfill a standing deportation order against him.
Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March despite a 2019 protection finding and a court order barring his removal to his home country. His case has become a focal point in the clash between Trump’s hardline deportation agenda and Democratic efforts to block removals.
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The filing noted that Abrego Garcia’s attorneys cited more than 20 countries he allegedly fears would prosecute or torture him if he were removed there and that Liberia is not on that list.
“Liberia is a thriving democracy and one of the United States’s closest partners on the African continent,” the filing said.
The filing said the country’s national language is English, its constitution “provides robust protections for human rights,” and Liberia is “committed to the humane treatment of refugees.”
DHS said in the filing that it has received diplomatic assurances from Liberia about the humane treatment of people removed there.
Attorneys for Abrego Garcia blasted the administration’s latest move as political retribution, arguing the latest deportation plan is part of a pattern of punitive deportation tactics.
“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,” attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said in a statement, according to The Associated Press.
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“Costa Rica stands ready to accept him as a refugee, a viable and lawful option,” the lawyer added. “Yet the government has chosen a course calculated to inflict maximum hardship. These actions are punitive, cruel and unconstitutional.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., a staunch supporter of Abrego Garcia, condemned the latest filing on Friday. Van Hollen flew to El Salvador in April in a publicized visit to meet Abrego Garcia in prison and has led the effort to get him released.
“The Trump Administration has been desperately shopping for faraway countries they can ship Kilmar Abrego Garcia to in order to deny his constitutional due process right to defend himself against the charges they have brought,” Van Hollen said in a statement.
“Clearly, Trump’s cronies want to avoid answering for the claim that they are engaged in a vindictive prosecution against Abrego Garcia, after a federal judge concluded earlier this month that his prosecution ‘may stem from retaliation by the DOJ and DHS due to Abrego’s successful challenge of his unlawful deportation in Maryland.’ Kilmar must be allowed his day in court to fight for his rights,” the senator said.
Abrego Garcia entered the U.S. illegally in 2011 and was issued a deportation order in 2019. Two previous judges found he was likely affiliated with MS-13.
Trump administration officials acknowledged in court that his deportation had been an administrative error, although some top Trump officials said he was correctly removed and contended he’s a member of the notorious MS-13 gang.
READ THE FILING. APP USERS CLICK HERE
One immigration judge in 2019 found that Garcia had not sufficiently refuted evidence of MS-13 affiliation and was thus removable to anywhere other than El Salvador because of a threat from a rival gang.
The latest move to deport him comes as Abrego Garcia remains in immigration detention in Pennsylvania. A federal judge in Maryland previously barred his immediate deportation while reviewing claims that the government is retaliating against him for successfully challenging his wrongful removal earlier this year.
The same judge wrote in an October order that his prosecution “may stem from retaliation by the DOJ and DHS,” while a separate case in Tennessee over human smuggling charges is still pending.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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